^1 


^^^^^^Hii. 


B 




^^H 


Lh 






^^' ,^v^^ 



^ ^'^. 



■^.•s: 






\y '^r 



v*> , 



cS^^ . 












\^^^. 



'^OO^ 



N 




,.>^^\ 



V ^^ " ^ 













O 0^ 







/;-» 



^v. .^'^' 






.%<i. 








JULIA LeGRAND 



"She remembers Miss Julia as always in a soft, 
trailing white gown, full of romantic fancies, and always accompanied 
by a great dog, the gift of a lover, an absent one, about whom there 
was some mystery. She is remembered as being very beautiful and 
graceful, with a suggestion of pensiveness about her, which was no 
doubt heightened by a childish imagination." Bee page 23. 



THE JOURNAL 

OF 

JULIA Le grand 

NEW ORLEANS 

1862-1863 



Edited by 
Kate Mason Ro\^land 

and 

Mrs. Morris L.. Croxall 



RICHMOND I 

EVERETT WADDET CO. 

1911 



W/f 



Copyright, 1911 

By Kate Mason Rowland and 

Mrs. Morris L. Croxall. 



©CI.A300479 



TO 

Edith Pye Weeden, 

the '' little niece '' for whom the 

journal was written, 

this volume is affectionately 

dedicated 

by the editors. 



PREFACE 

The period, the place, the circumstances of this 
diary are replete with the romance of the great 
war that made for the Confederate States of 
America the glorious name in history which is 
the rich inheritance of our people today. The 
story of New Orleans, the proud, the beautiful 
city, in her thraldom under Butler and Banks, is 
here interwoven with a family chronicle. But it 
is not merely a graphic recital of thrilling events. 
The writer, a lady of rare intellectual powers, of 
fine attainments, and great beauty of character, 
suffuses her pages with the charm of her own 
personality. Now humorous, now pathetic, as 
she tells of the trials and mortifications to which 
she and her friends were subjected, she preserves 
always a certain elevation of thought, a dignity 
of soul, displaying in the stress and strain of her 
environment, noble traits of patience, forbear- 
ance and charity. 

Ardently patriotic, she claimed two States for 
her allegiance, Maryland and Louisiana, and this 
volume should appeal especially, therefore, to the 
Confederates of these two Commonwealths. 
Though a resident of Louisiana from her girl- 
hood, she was born in '^Maryland, my Mary- 
land," and was of Maryland ancestry. 

5 



6 PREFACE 

Texas also may lay claim to Julia LeGrand, 
for here she spent the latter part of her life ; here 
she married and died. 

But to all Confederates, wherever found, who 
love and remember the Cause to which their gen- 
erous youth was pledged; and to all their de- 
scendants, the '^Sons'^ and ^'Daughters'' of the 
Confederate South, this Journal may be com- 
mended. 



CONTENTS 

Biographical Sketch 13 

Journal 35 

December 1, 1861 — December 31, 1862. 

I.'-Sending clothes to Claude — Dinner at Mrs. Norton s — 

. Sewing for the soldiers — Free market — ^The LeGrands 

give a little supper — the fall of new Orleans — 

i^Ladies sign paper prajnng that the city may not be 

"^given up — Mail communication cut off — The Mayor 

behaves with dignity — Letter to General Shepley — 

His character described — Letter to Mrs. John 

Chilton — "Butler and his Brother," poem — Letter to 

Mrs. Shepherd Brown — "The Ladies' Farewell ip^ 

Brutal Ferocity Butler," poem — Julia Ann steals 

money and runs away — Negro snake worship — 

Rumors of a negro insurrection — Christmas dinner 

- given by ladies to Confederate prisoners 35 

January 1 — January 28, 1863. 

II. The Ogden girls — General Shepley and Mrs. Norton — 

The "gorgeous French" — A young Confederate cap- 
tain — Harriet steals money — Mrs. Norton's inter- 
view with General Banks — Negroes starving in the 
streets— Funeral of Mr. Payne — Mrs. Davenport and 
General Butler — Daily encounters between white men 
and negroes — White' men always punished — Regis- 
tered enemies sent out of the city — Sherman's 
depredations at Milliken's Bend— Mrs. Waugh— Her 
beautiful character — Sydney Dameron's birthnight 
party^Mrs. Richardson and her asylum — A week at 
Greenville — The Ogdens and Randolphs — Mr. Haines — 
The Harrisons 61 

February 3 — February 28, 1863. 

III. An officer's caper — Experiences at the City Hall- 

Register for passports — Get arrest papers for ser- 
vants — Get passports, not named, Julia is "Number 
46" — Banks, his rudeness and heartlessness — The 

7 



CONTENTS 



Episcopal ministers — Their treatment — Account of 
Doctor Goodrich and Colonel Strong — Scene of excite- 
ment at the church — New paper, the Era — Organ of 
the Yankees, Bee, Picayune, The True Delta, all 
worthless now — Mary Jane and her delinquencies — 
General Banks and the planters — Confederate pris- 
oners sent off — Letter describing the scene — Artillery 
charge the women and children — Women and children 
detained on a boat all niglit — Nothing to eat — Mrs. 
Roselius and her husband — ^The oath-taking de- 
scribed — Insubordination and demoralization of Fed- 
eral soldiers — Arrests of citizens and children — Mrs. 
Cameron 113 

Mabch 1 — ^Mabch 15, 1863. 

IV. Mr. Denman, "a Yankee, but a Southern one" — ^Descrip- 
tion of Stafford, negro General — Commands 1,400 
negroes below the city — Their depredations in the 
country — Character of Mr. Randolph — His true 
chivalry — The Misses Norcum and their fine clothes — 
Further accounts of the "Levee scene" — Poem, "The 
Greatest Victory of the War, La Bataille ties Mou- 
choirs" — The infamy rests with Colonel French — 
Sewing cloth to be sent to Confederate soldiers — 
Wilkinson girls to wear the cloth as skirts — ^^Irs. 
Wilkinson and her imprisonment — Five hundred 
dollars reward offered for discovery of author of 
"Tlie Battle of the Handkerchiefs"— The Misses 
Pritchard — Mrs. Wilkinson on parole — Must report 
each day to Lieutenant Andrews — State pride and 
love — Kentucky and Maryland — ^Mrs. Pinkard — 
Negroes without passes arrested — The Yankee woman 
at the corner — The Rule of Three — Kate Wilkinson 
and General Sherman — Federals riding furiously up 
and down the street — Mrs. Dameron and her chil- 
dren — Colonel Broad well — A spy story — Passes for 
servants refused to all who have not taken the 
oath — These servants to be put to work on fortifi- 
cations and plantations — Negroes robbed by soldiers — 
Picture painted in New Orleans, "The Great Massa- 
chusetts Hyena" — Judge and Mrs. Montgomery 165 

March 17 — March 30, 1863. 

V. Great distress and confusion among the negroes — Rela- 
tives of Farragut refused his protection and would 
not see him — Mrs. Colonel Pinckney — Doctor Glenn 



CONTENTS 



and Sarah — Arrest of three ladies — Thrown into a 
room with drunken soldiers — Other outrages de- 
tailed — Mrs. Pritehard — Mrs. Stewart's daughters — 
A prose article on the Levee scene — Colonel Clarke 
reported wounded — Great regard for him in New 
Orleans — Ambulances with wounded brought to the 
city — Letters from Charley Chilton, Mary Lou 
Harrison and others — Tell of their love affairs — 
More spy stories — Mrs. Judge Clarke — Account of 
Mrs. General Valle, U. S. A. — She has a woman 
arrested for looking at her — Mary deserts her mis- 
tress — Carries off Jake — House of Mr. Burnside, an 
old bachelor, described — Women wear round capes 
called "Beauregards" — Doctor Fenner, Mr. Dudley, 
Mrs. Wells — Day of fasting and prayer appointed by 
President Davis — Observed at Roman Catholic Cathe- 
dral — Father Mullen — His fearless replies to Butler — 
Doctor Stone — Mrs. Miller — The Waugh family — 
Mrs. Evans — Mrs. Jeansenand — Account of Mrs. 
Brown's house, and how it was seized — Account of 
Mrs. J. P. Harrison's house and its occupation — 
Letter to General Banks asking for articles of value 
taken — Doctor Palmer — His letter to Mr. Perkins — 
Mrs. Norton's servant, Mary — Futile effort to get 
back Jake — Humiliating interview at the City Hall — 
Insolence of Captain Miller 227 

March 31— Apeil 8, 1863. 

VI. Mary Ogden and her pranks — Shepley employs policemen 
to listen and report conversations on the cars and in 
the streets — Houses to be searched in which British 
officers have been entertained — French and Spanish 
officers also in sympathy with Confederates — They 
visit the pretty girls — Mrs. Tutt — She brings dis- 
couraging news from the Confederacy — The Mitchell 
girls — Mrs. Saunders — Weitzel in the city — Mrs. 
Gilmour and her daughters — The paroled prisoners 
locked up in the Custom House — Sent off secretly in 
the night — Lieutenant Musselman — Mrs. Shute re- 
fused the privilege of seeing her son — Mattie and 
Sarah Wells — Betty Neely — Mary Harrison hears 
from her aunt, Mrs. Riley — Invites the LeGrands to 
go with them (the Harrisons) to Franklin, Louisi- 
ana — Captain Harley — Dick and James Pye — Remin- 
iscences of the Maryland home — A cup of tea and a 
long chat 293 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 

Julia LeGrand Frontispiece ^^ 

Kate ;Mason Rowland IQ ^ 

Mbs. Morris L. Croxall 24^ 

Claude F. LeGrand 35 i^ 

Captain Charles Moale Croxall 48 ^ 

Colonel Claudius Francis LeGrand 64 i^ 

MoLLiE Emanuel 80 '^ 

Ellin North Moale 112 i^ 

R. LeGrand Johnston 128 i/^ 

Maby Johnston (Mrs. Fielder C. Slingluff ) 144 ^ 

Mrs. R. a. Wilkinson 192 1- 

Miss Emily Virginia Mason 240 iX 

Mrs. Theodore Shute 296 / 



11 



THE JOURNAL 

OF 

JULIA Le GRAND 



BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 
Julia LeGband (Mrs. Adolf Waitz) 

Julia Ellen LeGrand was born at ^* Portland 
Manor/* Anne Arundel County, Maryland, in 
1829. She was the daughter of Claudius F. 
LeGrand and Anna Maria CroxalL The latter 
was the only daughter of Captain Charles Croxall 
and Polly Morris, eldest daughter of Robert 
Morris, the financier of the Revolution. The 
LeGrands were of French origin, coming over to 
America in 1789, just prior to the French Revo- 
lution. Claudius, or Claude Frangois LeGrand 
and Samuel D. LeGrand were brothers. Judge 
John Carroll LeGrand, son of Samuel D. 
LeGrand, was for many years Judge of the Court 
of Appeals of Maryland. Claude LeGrand was 
sent to school in Paris, and on his return, accord- 
ing to family tradition, was captured by the Eng- 
lish and imprisoned on the ship Dartmouth 
When released, LeGrand entered the army and 

13 



14 JOURNAL OF JULIA LE GRAND 

became a colonel in the war of 1812. * ^ Years and 
years ago,'' writes R. LeGrand Johnston, the 
artist, ^*my mother used to correspond with Tete 
and Claude LeGrand in France, children of my 
grandfather's brother, who with him was sent 
to the Polytechnique, Paris. He remained in 
France and married there. ' ' These three brothers 
are believed to have been nephews, or great- 
nephews of General Claude Just Alexander 
LeGrand, a distinguished officer of the French 
army under the first Napoleon. 

Captain Charles Croxall was one of the ten 
children of Charles Croxall and Rebecca Moale. 
Charles Croxall, Jr., was born in Maryland, 
October 7, 1756, and died at ''Portland Manor," 
November 6, 1831. When a mere youth he en- 
tered the Revolutionary Army, as ensign of the 
11th Pennsylvania troops; was commissioned 
lieutenant in 1777, and made captain the day after 
the battle of Brandywine for bravery in action. 
He was severely wounded in a later engagement, 
taken prisoner and confined in one of the infa- 
mous prison ships of the British, and was finally 
exchanged in 1780. Captain Croxall was of an 
old family of Warwickshire, England, the Croxalls 
of ''Shustoke House," Warwickshire. Richard 
Croxall, the first of the name in America, married 
Joanna Carroll, a cousin of the Carrolls ''of 
Carrollton." The Croxalls were Cavaliers dur- 



BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 15 

ing the English civil wars, and for many years 
they cherished a silver medal, as large as a saucer, 
signed* ^Charles Rex, ''as a receipt from Charles I 
for funds raised by them to provide a troop of 
horse for the Royal Cause. Captain Croxall was 
married to Mary Morris, July 26, 1781, and 
Robert Morris settled upon his daughter and son- 
in-law the splendid estate of ** Belvedere,'' in 
Warren County, New Jersey. 

The eldest daughter of Anna Maria (Croxall) 
LeGrand, Matilda, who married Dr. Arel Pye, 
of Maryland, was born at *' Belvedere, " and was 
old enough to attend school before her parents 
removed from there to ** Portland Manor.*' She 
often spoke of crossing the ice from the Jersey 
side to Philadelphia. The second daughter, Mary 
LeGrand, married Mr. Reuben Johnston, a prom- 
inent lawyer of Alexandria, Virginia. The two 
youngest daughters, Julia and Virginia, were 
both women of brilliant minds. In a manuscript 
sketch of Julia LeGrand, by Prof. James Albert 
Harrison, who as a boy of sixteen knew them 
both, he writes : 

**From their earliest girlhood these two sisters 
were thrown together in the most intimate way, 
and grew up with an affection for each other that 
was as tender as it was beautiful. Both remark- 
ably gifted, one — Julia — distinguished herself by 
her culture, her extensive reading, her enthusi- 



16 JOURNAL OF JULIA LE GRAND 

asm for poetry, romance and history, her love for 
all that was good, pure and great. A singular 
grace accompanied all she said and did, and her 
striking conversational powers were the delight 
and pride of all her friends, for she threw into 
her talk a rich inspiration, a delicate and playful 
wit, a generous ardor in defence of the absent and 
helpless, and a large fund of unobtrusive knowl- 
edge and experience, that very few men possess. 
In her correspondence there was an ease and 
spontaneity rarely found in the letters of literary 
women, and it was early gathered from these that 
Miss LeGrand bade fair to distinguish herself in 
literature some day. ' ^ 

Besides the four sisters, Matilda, Mary, Julia 
and Virginia, there were two sons, Washington 
and Claude LeGrand. In the early thirties, 
Colonel LeGrand sold his estate in Maryland and 
emigrated to Louisiana, where he settled at 
Young's Point, or Millican's Bend, on the banks 
of the Mississippi. While making preparations 
to establish his family in their new home, his wife 
moved to Alexandria, Virginia, for the educa- 
tional advantages it afforded, and here Mary 
LeGrand met her fate. A letter from Colonel 
LeGrand written in 1836 to his brother-in-law, 
Thomas Croxall, gives an interesting picture of 
conditions in the Southern country at that time. 
Thomas Croxall was the grandfather of Morris 




KATE :MAS0N ROWLAND 
Corresponding Secretary U. D. C, 1896 



BIOGEAPHICAL SKETCH 17 

LeGrand Croxall, of Washington, D. C, and the 
latter *s middle name bears witness to the affec- 
tionate intimacy between the two families. 

Maryland Bend, 
Near Tuscnmbia, Louisiana, 

April 9th, 1836. 
Dear Thomas: 

I am at last fixed in this State after examining 
a great part of the interior of Mississippi and 
this State. I finally have located myself on the 
margin of this noble river. I found the lands of 
the interior much cheaper than those I have 
bought, but of a quality that must in a few years 
become sterile, while those on the borders of the 
river, which are entirely made of its overflowing, 
can never be exhausted. I have also noticed the 
great expense to which the inland planter is at 
to get his crop to the river, to ship it from there 
to New Orleans, the common market for all our 
cotton. Most of the interior lands are more 
broken than the hills you sold R. Garner; the 
river lands are perfectly level. Those who live 
some thirty or fifty miles from the river have to 
pay from four to six dollars for every bale they 
send to a shipping port; those on the river can 
avoid expense. Our gin houses are mostly from 
fifty to a hundred yards from the river and they 
can roll all their cotton on board the steamboats 
that carry it to New Orleans without any other 
cost than that received by the boat which is $1 
per bale. Lands on the river are now becoming 
very scarce; planters are daily more sensible of 



18 JOURNAL OF JULIA LE GRAND 

their real value, and many tracts have been sold 
for $100 per acre, while the lands in the interior 
seldom sell for more than from $12 to $20 per 
acre. These dwellings in this new country are 
very fine ; but on the other hand it is no uncom- 
mon thing to see a planter who makes from 600 
to 1,000 bales of cotton, live in a house so open 
that he could not by shutting the door keep a dog 
out. They laugh at you if you say anything about 
the uncomfortable way in which they live, and 
point with pride to the fields which bring them in 
this yearly fortune. 

The tract which I bought contains 1,320 acres, 
costing me $52,800, or $40 per acre. It has forty 
acres of what is called cleared land; that is to 
say, the cane and the undergrowth all cut out, but 
the large trees still standing, but have been 
doomed for some years. We are now planting 
and shall continue to plant until we plant 300 
acres of cotton ; we have planted our cane some- 
time ago. If we succeed in our crop and the price 
remains at what it now is, our crop will be worth 
all I got for Portland Manor. I can not say I 
am sorry I came here, because I am sure I can do 
much more for my family than I ever could have 
done in Maryland. I have had my health very 
well since I came here; but while at Vicksburg 
and during my absence in search of land, I lost 
my poor Nancy. Her loss is severely felt by me, 
for she was the best of all my slaves. I have also 
lost some of the infant children from smallpox; 
my trials in this respect have been very great, 
and enough to almost make me wish I had never 
come. My people are now very hearty, and are 



BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 19 

much pleased with their situation; living on the 
river banks, they have many advantages they 
could not have in the interior. I give them the 
privilege of chopping as much wood as they 
please, which they sell from the landing to the 
steamboats that pass daily, at three dollars a 
cord. Last year the owner of this place sold 
$3,000 worth of wood to the steamboats. I have 
not had time to enter into that part of the busi- 
ness yet, but shall do so next year. 

Coming down the river I visited many of the 
States that border on this great river, which 
nearly all our Western States do. On my return 
I shall go by the way of Nashville, St. Louis, Cin- 
cinnati, Wheeling and Pittsburgh, and will be 
more able to give you an account of them when I 
see you next summer. I think I shall leave here 
in May after my cotton is scooped out. I am 
anxious to see my dear little family, from whom 
I have been separated now for nearly eight 
months. I hear frequently from them, and the 
only thing they complain of is my long absence 
and the very cold winter. The winters here are 
very mild; but few days have been this season 
that you could not sit before your door even 
with your coat off. The sun now is as warm as 
any time in June, and makes me think of making 
my escape to the East. My John does not live 
with me on the plantation; he was desirous of 
living at Vicksburg. He lives there at the first 
hotel. I get twenty-five dollars per month for 
him and he makes nearly as much for himself. 
I could get thirty dollars for his services, but the 
other tavern is not so genteel. Many very 



20 JOURNAL OF JULIA LE GRAND 

splendid fortunes have been made here the past 
three years and many can be made by buying 
wild lands, clearing them and selling them that 
cost but $2.50 an acre for $20 or $30. This is 
done daily. My former neighbor, John Weems, 
went to New Orleans about a month ago to close 
the purchase of a place for which he was to give 
$30,000. This sounds big to the ears of a Mary- 
land tobacco planter, but here it is not considered 
anything. Several places and negroes have been 
sold since I came here for upwards of $300,000. 
I was offered one some months past, for which 
they only asked $500,000, and this was considered 
cheap at that. Anything under an hundred thou- 
sand dollars scarcely takes the attention of a 
Mississippi cotton planter. I go on a slower, 
though perhaps not more sure plan than they do, 
for where the means is adequate to the purchaser, 
it is quite as easy to pay the one as the other. 

Vicksburg is a flourishing town, and though 
not nearly as old as Natchez, from its local situa- 
tion, as it is by a fine, rich country, it will soon 
leave her in the background. I paid a visit to the 
great city of New Orleans, and was really more 
than surprised at its growing wealth ; more than 
I expected to be. It is destined to be the greatest 
city in the Union, and when the lands on the 
Mississippi, Ohio, Miami, and the many hundred 
rivers that empty into the Mississippi and carry 
their produce to New Orleans are cultivated, its 
ports, though spacious, will not be half large 
enough to hold the foreign vessels that will be 
necessary to carry the productions of this great 
Western country from this Queen of the South. 



BIOGEAPHICAL SKETCH 21 

The levee, or wharf, at New Orleans, is now up- 
wards of four miles long, and the shipping are 
moored all the way along it from six to eight 
deep. Vessels from every country. I really had 
no conception of this town until I saw it; the 
facility of doing business in this country must 
always induce strangers to settle here in prefer- 
ence to in our cold-hearted towns of the North. 
It is much easier to get a loan of from twenty to 
thirty thousand dollars without any security than 
your word than it would be to get five thousand 
on a mortgage on the best property in Maryland 
from the cold-hearted Marylanders ; such a State 
as this and Mississippi can not help but make 
their inhabitants wealthy. 

Remember me kindly to all the family, and be- 
lieve me, with the most esteem. 
Yours, etc., 

Claudius F. LeGband. 

If you should write to me, direct to Vicksburg, 
Miss. The mail is much more certain. 

A patriarchal scene is here before us of the 
old Southern plantation life, where the well-cared- 
for slaves were as much a part of the family as 
the children, and were affectionately known to 
their master as his * ^people. ' ' It was a long jour- 
ney in those days from Maryland to Louisiana, 
and a serious undertaking, the transportation of 
servants and household effects from the Potomac 
to the Mississippi. ^'The new life,*^ for the emi- 
grant family, writes Mrs. Weeden, Julia 



22 JOUENAL OF JULIA LE GRAND 

LeGrand's niece, was '^full of vicissitudes, of 
struggles with the wilderness, the land often 
overflowed by the mighty currents of the river, 
held at bay only by the levees. Then there was the 
loss of household treasures, plate, pictures and 
furniture by the sinking or burning of a steam- 
boat; fluctuations in the price of cotton, heavy 
and severe expenses in its cultivation; the un- 
known diseases of a new country, with many 
privations all casting a gloom over the once happy 
household, and greatly reducing its finances." 
But a brighter picture of the LeGrands in their 
Louisiana home comes to us through the recollec- 
tions of E. LeGrand Johnston, who visited them 
as a boy in the fifties : ^ ' In the opera season in 
New Orleans, Colonel LeGrand, with his daugh- 
ters and a train of servants, would go to the St. 
Charles Hotel and stay until it was over. In the 
summers, Julia and Virginia, with their maids, 
their luggage piled high on wagons, would go to 
the Springs in Virginia." We have also the de- 
lightful reminiscences of Mrs. C. W. Frazer, of 
Memphis, Tennessee, contributed by her daugh- 
ter, the authoress, Virginia Frazer Boyle. She 
writes: **When we were children there was 
nothing which charmed us more than my mother's 
stories of Miss Julia LeGrand. When my mother 
was about twelve or thirteen years old, my grand- 
father, Col. H. R. Austin, owned the Mississippi 



BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 23 

Springs in Hinds County, where his family spent 
a great deal of time, and about that time old 
Colonel LeGrand exchanged plantations with an 
uncle of my mother, William P. Stone, which 
brought the LeGrands upon the place next to the 
Springs. My mother was at a most impression- 
able age, and as Miss Julia took a great fancy to 
her, she became the heroine of her childhood, 
which no one ever displaced. She remembers 
Miss Julia as always in a soft, trailing white 
gown, full of romantic fancies, and always accom- 
panied by a great dog, the gift of a lover, an ab- 
sent one, about whom there was some mystery. 
She is remembered as being very beautiful and 
graceful, with a suggestion of pensiveness about 
her, which was no doubt heightened by a childish 
imagination.'' Mrs. Frazer says that ''the whole 
family were most interesting and romantic. Miss 
Julia played very beautifully upon an old harp 
which had a history, and Colonel LeGrand, the 
father, played on a tiny Spanish guitar which he 
had picked up in his travels. They had had im- 
mense wealth, but were still considered rich, 
though they had lost a great deal, and by com- 
parison they believed themselves quite poor and 
tried to economize, or thought they did. Through 
mismanagement later, after the death of their 
parents, they really lost everything and Miss 
Virginia and Miss Julia opened a select school 
for girls in New Orleans.'' 



24 JOURNAL OF JULIA LE GRAND 

Julia LeGrand was engaged in early youth to 
a charming and brilliant young man, Charles 
Theodore Horlon, of Vicksburg, Miss. He served 
on the staff of General Taylor in the Mexican 
War and received honorable mention for gallan- 
try. As he was poor, the marriage was post- 
poned until the lover could realize his plan of 
securing a competence through some speculation 
in Mexican lands. He went to Mexico with a 
party for this purpose, and letters to his be- 
trothed are preserved, telling of the successive 
stages of the expedition. Finally he came to a 
point where he left the wagons and went forward 
on liorseback beyond reach of communication by 
mail. He never returned, nor were any of the 
party heard from again. It was supposed they 
were murdered by hostile Indians. Under the 
name of '^Guy Fontenoy,^' he was made the hero 
of an unpublished novel by Julia LeGrand. 

Both the sisters, Julia and Virginia, were great 
admirers of Edgar Allan Poe, and their devotion 
to the poet inspired them with an ardent interest 
in Mrs. Virginia Clemm, Poe's mother-in-law. 
They corresponded with her and offered her a 
home in their family. But Mrs. Clemm was not 
willing to go so far South. Then Julia LeGrand 
induced her sister, Mrs. Reuben Johnston, to in- 
vite Mrs. Clemm to her house in Alexandria, Vir- 
ginia. And in this way Mrs. Clemm was received 
into the Johnston home, where she was affection- 




MRS. MORRIS L. CROXALL 



BIOGEAPHICAL SKETCH 25 

ately known as ^^Muddie Clemm" by the children 
of the family, and where she remained until the 
breaking out of the war between the States. 

Upon the formation of the Southern Confed- 
eracy, and the consequent hostilities, Claude 
LeGrande, who was living in Texas, joined the 
Confederate Army from that State, and made for 
himself a most honorable record. Two letters of 
his to his sisters, Julia and Virginia, written 
from the Virginia battlefields, are here given : 



Thursday, May 30th, 1861. 
Dearest Sisters: 

If this reaches you be satisfied of my continued 
health and safety. I wish I could get such an as- 
surance of yours. A man leaves today who will 
try and get through. I am happy now in my pro- 
fession, and do not wish to come back except to 
see you all. God grant the rascals will not molest 
you, if you are still in the city. We have had no 
mails from the army for a long while, which is 
the reason I have not written. Some few letters 
have come to the camp by indirect means. I trust 
you are still with Mrs. Chilton, in Madison. I 
write in haste and have only time to say that Gen- 
eral Jackson has driven the enemy back to Har- 
per's Ferry, and that our brigade, regiment and 
company have done their share. We have been 
highly complimented. Our brigade loss has been 
considerable in killed and wounded, but not very 
great considering that we followed and fought 



26 JOURNAL OF JULIA LE GRAND 

every now and then for three days. One man, 
Jennings, was killed from our company. I wish 
to God yon had gone to Texas in time. I have 
written to Mrs. Chilton and Mrs. Smith to find 
out where you are. If we have any kin in Balti- 
more, please let me know their names and condi- 
tions, and get me any polite letters there or else- 
where you can; no one knows where the fortunes 
of war may soon take us. We are on the eve of 
breaking camp, so I must quit. Do go to Texas 
as soon as you can. 

Your very uneasy brother, 

Claude. 



July, Tuesday 24th, 1861. 
At the Battle-ground near Bull Run. 
Bear Sisters: 

We have had so many small marches and large 
fights lately that I have had no time to write, and 
because we left everything but blankets and pro- 
visions when we set out to meet the enemy last 
week — paper among the rest — I borrow this, and 
am fortunate in doing so. Last Tuesday, the 
18th, we, the 7th regiment, hurried up to the aid 
of the 1st Virginia and some other regiments who 
were defending Blackford 's Ford, on Bull 's Creek. 
We went in under a heavy fire of musketry, but 
we were in some measure protected by trees and 
the overshooting of the enemy. Colonel Hays 
considered the fire there very heavy. On Sunday 
the enemy attacked the whole line guarded by our 
troops, but at this point. Stony Bridge, the main 



BIOGEAPHICAL SKETCH 27 

battle was fought. Our regiment was entrenched 
where the first battle was fought that morning at 
the Ford, but gave up the situation to some others, 
and we were held as a reserve. We were kept 
marching around, with an occasional bombshot 
falling about us and taking off a few of our regi- 
ment, for I suppose about ^ye hours; then we 
came here too fast by a long deal for comfort, and 
arrived almost exhausted, but still, from all ac- 
counts, our approach decided the affair, and we 
were not in the fire of the enemy more than ten 
minutes or a quarter of an hour before they re- 
tired. I cannot give particulars; you will get 
them from the papers, and I wish you would send 
brother and sister an account of same. 

I have heard many a ball sing its death-note 
since I saw you, but am as well as ever I was, and 
honorably so, too. The day after the battle I was 
in search of water, and strayed over the battle- 
field ; it was wet and foggy, and it did not take me 
as long to get lost as it did to find my way back 
to camp again. One of my messmates went to the 
Colonel and told him that I was long gone, where- 
upon the Colonel paid me the compliment to be 
uneasy and to say he would willingly send the 
whole regiment to my rescue if the enemy had me, 
adding, that the first day he saw me he knew that I 
was to be depended upon. I had given the Col- 
onel a cup of coffee thatmorning; there was almost 
none in camp, and perhaps that attention and my 
coming from West Texas helped me to get the 
compliment. I tell the anecdote to you, knowing 
that^ it will please you, as it did me. 

Direct to the same place to be forwarded. I 



28 JOURNAL OF JULIA LE GRAND 

have not drawn the money yet. Some of the com- 
pany fell back, but your brother was not among 
the number. 

Claude. 

My position here is much to my satisfaction; 
the snobs are becoming modest. Colonel Hays' 
saying he would turn out the regiment for me was 
of course only a compliment, but I think he likes 
me. I would not be anywhere else for anything. 
Write to Texas for me ; our things have not come 
up yet, so I can not write for myself. 

About ten days after this last letter was written 
Claude LeGrand was shot in the right arm, near 
the shoulder, at the battle of Port Republic, in the 
Shenandoah Valley. ^^ After he was wounded, with- 
out paying any attention to his own hurt, ' ' writes 
his niece, Mrs. Weeden, *^he assisted in putting 
others of the wounded into wagons. In helping lift 
a heavy man his superior ofificer reproached him 
for seeming lack of energy. LeGrand replied that 
he was doing the best he could, as he could not use 
his right arm. On examination the officer was over- 
come with sympathy, and told him that he should 
have been one of the first to receive attention and 
assisted LeGrand into the wagon himself. He 
was then jolted over a rough road to Charlottes- 
ville, with only straw for a bed and but a bucket 
of water by his side as dressing for the cruel 
wound. There he lay in a barn for three days 



BIOGEAPHICAL SKETCH 29 

without attention, with the result his arm had to 
be amputated at the shoulder. He gave great 
promise as a sculptor, and it can easily be seen 
what the loss of his right arm meant to him.'^ 
Fortunately, there was nursing at the Charlottes- 
ville hospitals at this time a friend of Claude 
LeGrand's sister, Mrs. Johnston. This was Miss 
Emily Virginia Mason. She at length discovered 
young LeGrand among the crowd of wounded 
men, and nursed him carefully, sending tidings 
of him to the distracted brother and sisters, who 
had been for a long time without news of him. 

The year 1861 found Julia and Virginia 
LeGrand living in New Orleans, keeping house to- 
gether in a small cottage, on Prytania Street, 
*^ where I often took tea with them,'^ writes Mrs. 
Pierce Butler, the ^^Mary Lou Harrison^' of the 
Journal ; and Mrs. Butler adds : ^ ^ I can never for- 
get Miss Julia and Miss Virginia LeGrand, for 
they are associated with that time in one's life 
which one always remembers, and all the glamour 
of youth and happiness is thrown over the recol- 
lections. Both these ladies were intellectual and 
cultured, thoroughly unworldly and unselfish. 
Both were full of romantic enthusiasms and high 
ideals, but Miss Julia possessed peculiar charms. 
Her reverses and sorrows only broadened and 
deepened and sweetened her lovely nature. They 
were very fond of me, and I passed many happy 



30 JOUENAL OF JULIA LE GRAND 

hours with them. ^ ^ The quiet, cultured little home 
of the two sisters was broken up by the fall of New 
Orleans, and they closed their house and went — 
for mutual safety and protection — to the home of 
Mrs. Norton, Mrs. Butler's grandmother. ^^My 
family, ' ' says Mrs. Butler, ^ ' left New Orleans im- 
mediately after the fall of the city, leaving behind 
my grandmother, Mrs. Norton, and two aunts, 
Mrs. Shepherd Brown and Mrs. William N. Dam- 
eron. We went to an old plantation home near 
Clinton, Mississippi, the home of my third aunt, 
Mrs. John Marshall Chilton, who was the partic- 
ular friend of the Misses LeGrand.'' After their 
troubled and forced sojourn in the captured city, 
now become their prison, a part of which period 
is covered by the Jouknal, the sisters, unable to 
rejoin their Texas relatives, went first to Jackson, 
Mississippi, and then to ^^Nortonia," the home of 
Mrs. Chilton. ^^My aunts," writes Mrs. Weeden, 
'*had gotten as far as Mrs. Chilton's when Vicks- 
burg fell, and they had some hairbreadth escapes 
from straying bands of depredating Yankees and 
negroes. While Mrs. Chilton had gone to Vicks- 
burg to bring her sons home (they had been be- 
sieged in the army there and were paroled after 
the surrender), a band of negroes and soldiers 
came to the front door, threw down their guns 
with a loud bang on the gallery floor, and asked 
for admission. Aunties, with the little ones of 



BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 31 

the family in their little night clothes, opened the 
door and held parley with the enemy. After some 
insolent and threatening behavior, the marauders 
held conference with each other, and then told the 
ladies it had been their intention to ^pick them as 
clean as birds and then burn the house, ^ but the 
sight of the little ones aroused from sleep made 
them think better of it.*' Mrs. Butler narrates of 
their further adventures that *^they accompanied 
Mrs. Chilton and her family across country, camp- 
ing out, to where we [the Harrisons] had taken 
refuge, Newnan, Georgia, and lived with my aunt, 
Mrs. Brown, who had followed us out of New Or- 
leans. Of course, we were all like one big family, 
and saw each other daily. After the battle of 
Chickamauga, we fell back to Thomasville, Geor- 
gia, which is just eighteen miles from the Florida 
line. The Browns and LeGrands went with us and 
lived in our home. I can not now recall the date 
of the departure from our midst of our dear 
friends, the LeGrands. I know they were always 
hoping and planning eagerly to join their sister 
in Texas, Mrs. Pye. I can vaguely recall their 
brother, Claude, coming for them, and how sorry 
we were to have them go, especially upon such an 
uncertain journey. We knew they must suffer 
many hardships before reaching their destination, 
and both were so delicate. I never saw them 
again, but had letters quite often from Miss Ju- 



32 JOUENAL OF JULIA LE GRAND 

lia. Their family had suffered much, so these 
beautiful letters were very sad, being full of the 
wreckage of war/' The maimed brother, Claude, 
says Mrs. Weeden, ^* drove all the way from 
Texas with his one arm a team of mules attached 
to an open wagon for his sisters. They followed 
in the wake of Joe Johnston's army through 
Georgia and Alabama, nursing and ministering 
to the sick and wounded, until they reached 
Tampa. From there they were sent on a Federal 
transport across the Gulf to Galveston, where 
they became again a united family with those 
there they loved so well." 

Julia LeGrand was married in Galveston, 
Texas, May, 1867, to Mr. Adolph Waitz, of Ger- 
many, **a gentleman of fine abilities and attain- 
ments." Virginia LeGrand died suddenly in 
1875, in escaping from one of the great Galves- 
ton floods. Mrs. Waitz survived her husband 
several years, continuing to live in Galveston, 
where she died in the early part of January, 
1881. 

Mrs. Waitz never published anything, but 
she left in manuscript two novels, besides the 
portion of her war Journal here given. Of her 
gifted aunt's literary works, her niece, Mrs. 
Weeden, says: ^^In her happy girlhood Mrs. 
Waitz had written, purely for her own pleasure, 
a novel which is a vivid picture of the life of 



BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 33 

Southern people in those days. [It is called 
*Our Neighborhood,' and is dedicated to Prof. 
James Albert Harrison.] After her marriage, 
Mrs. Waitz wrote another novel, dealing with the 
dreadful days following the close of the war. The 
fragment of her diary now offered to the public, 
owes its preservation to chance. This diary, 
which extended from the beginning of the war 
until the surrender of General Lee, had been 
written for a little niece [Mrs. Edith Pye Wee- 
den], and Julia, fearing their baggage might be 
searched on their journeyings, destroyed it, as 
she thought. The portion preserved was hidden 
among the leaves of an old novel she had been 
reading aloud to her friends during the long and 
tedious evenings of their forced marches." 




CLAUDE F. LeGRAXD 

Member 7th Louisiana Regiment Infantry "Crescent 
Rifles," and member Harry Hays Rifles 

Brother of Julia LeGrand 



I. 

Decembek 1, 1861 — December 31, 1862. 



THE JOURNAL 

December 1st, 1861, 

New Orleans, 
Just completed another bundle of clothes for 
poor Claude, which we hope will reach him be- 
fore Christmas, the other bundle having failed 
to reach him. Mrs. Brown (Mrs. Shepherd) went 
with me to Lyon's to choose his coats and gloves. 
We have roasted some coffee and made some cake, 
which we have stuffed in his pillow. I wonder 
how long the poor boy's head will lie peacefully 
on the latter. We have cut up our flannel double- 
gowns to make him shirts, as everything is so 
dreadfully high these blockade times. I have 
longed for money that I might send him many 
things to gladden both, his heart and those of his 
comrades, in their darksome little log huts at 
Manchac. We have done what we could, but have 
been cut off from further supplies, and have the 
troublesome spirit of proud people who will exist 
on a crust rather than ask help. I believe our 
friends would love us better if we were le^s 

35 



36 JOURNAL OF JULIA LE GRAND 

proud. Went in Mrs. Brown's carriage to the 
confectioner's to-day for Claude's cake — got out 
of sick bed to do so — called for Mrs. Brown, who 
went with us to the Southern Express office. 
There is a kind old man in there whom I love to 
hear speak of "Our Soldiers." He refuses all 
freight except what is sent to our poor boys ; he 
promises Claude shall have his things before 
Christmas. My heart turns so lovingly to our 
poor brother — shall I ever see him again? Will 
he die in battle, or will this wretched cough that 
keeps me awake at night and makes me feel so 
worn and weak in the morning, kill me before he 
can return a victorious soldier? 

Christmas Day. Had a kind note from Mrs. 
Brown begging us to come to dinner. Low- 
spirited ; did not go. 

New Year's [1862]. Took dinner with Mrs. 
Norton. Miss Betty Callender and Doctor Rich- 
ardson the only strangers present. Mrs. Chilton 
keeping us all alive. Dr. R. has some machine 
on hand with which he intends to blow up Federal 
rebels. It is highly approved by all who have 
seen it. In the evening, Edmund (or Edward) 
Harrison, whom they all call "Duck," came in. 
He has lately returned from Europe; he was 
studying at Bonn, but our Southern troubles have 
brought him home. He is a quiet, modest young 
man; though his father is so rich, he is retiring 



JOUKNAL OF JULIA LE GRAND 37 

in dress and deportment and seems to have no 
desire beyond a quiet room and a book. He does 
not represent the idea of ' ' young America ^ ' in the 
least. He is in love, I think, with his pretty 
cousin, S. C, who is altogether unsuited to him, 
being fond of admiration and the world generally. 

Lizzie Ogden, speaking of her brother Billy, 
now in the Confederate States Army as lieu- 
tenant, says, that as an officer, he has been let 
into the secret of Beauregard's plans, which he, 
Billy, thinks excellent — said brother not being 
twenty. The mingled pride and simplicity of this 
speech made me laugh — in my sleeve — though I 
would not hurt Lizzie 's feelings for the world. 

Everybody sending blankets to our soldiers. 
"We have sent all of ours except two thin ones. 
Mrs. Chilton and I go to the Ladies' Sewing So- 
ciety and bring home bundles of work to do for 
the soldiers. 

Free market kept up by contribution. Planters 
all over the county send in to support it. The 
poor, it seems, are quite fastidious ; some scenes 
in the free market are quite ludicrous. Some of 
the women, if told they cannot gratify some par- 
ticular taste, refuse all that is offered; for in- 
stance, one became angry a few days ago because 
presented with black tea instead of green, and 
another finding no coffee turned up her nose at 
all the other comfortable items which the market 



38 JOURNAL OF JULIA LE GRAND 

contains. Some women, they say, curse their bene- 
factors heartily when disappointed. Coffee they 
had at first, but blockade times have changed this 
once familiar berry into something resembling 
gold beads. Cleopatra, with her pearls, was 
scarcely more "wastefully given" than a coffee 
drinker in these days. Strange to say, I have not 
relished it for years until now. I have not parted 
with my tea yet, though I dole it out somewhat 
less lavishly than in old times when tea caddies 
were as ^ Aplenty as blackberries," rather more so 
in New Orleans. 

Mrs. Chilton, going up to Hinds County, begs 
us to go with her, but there is something in our 
own little home which we cannot give up. We are 
so lonely-hearted, so wasted by early afflictions; 
anxious, nervous years and desolating losses, that 
we have nothing of feeling or interest to inter- 
change with any, even those we approve. 

Gave Mrs. Chilton a little supper the very night 
before she left. Mrs. Montgomery without the 
Judge (no gentlemen invited), Mrs. Norton, Mrs. 
Parham, Sarah C, Mary Lou Harrison and 
Mrs. Dameron were the guests. Mr. Dameron 
came, not knowing gentlemen were interdicted. 
Charley Chilton came in after awhile, and Mr. 
Parham sent word that it was very unkind to 
admit but one of the * ^ Confederate Guards." 
Amused Mrs. Montgomery and several others 



JOURNAL OF JULIA LE GRAND 39 

with a trick with a key and a book which told the 
fortune accurately of everyone present. If I had 
found the philosopher's stone, it could not have 
given more general satisfaction, I believe. Wanted 
to keep Mrs. Chilton for a good-bye late talk, but 
Mrs. Norton hurried her off. 

New Orleans, May 9th [1862]. It has been long 
since we heard from our dear brother, for the 
letters I sent to his last encampment must have 
failed to reach him, and of late have had no means 
of communicating with him. I would have told 
him of events which have come to pass in this city 
at the time of their passing, but I have been too 
excited to take orderly note of anything. Before 
he sees this, if ever he does, he will have heard of 
the surrender of the city. A pitiful affair it has 
been. In the first place, Lovell, a most worthless 
creature, was sent here by Davis to superintend 
the defense of this city. He did little or nothing 
and the little he did was all wrong. Duncan, the 
really gallant defender of Fort Jackson, could get 
nothing that he needed, though he continually 
applied to Lovell. Only a few guns at the fort 
worked at all, but these were gallantly used for 
the defense of the city. The fort is uninjured and 
could have held out till our great ram, the 
Mississippi, was finished, but a traitor sent word 
to the commander of the Federal fleet to hasten, 
which he did, and our big gun, our only hope, was 



40 JOURNAL OF JULIA LE GRAND 

burned before our eyes to prevent her from fall- 
ing into Federal hands. First and last then, this 
city, the most important one in the Confederacy, 
has fallen, and Yankee troops are drilling and 
parading in our streets. Poor New Orleans! 
What has become of all your promised greatness ! 
In looking through an old trunk, I came across a 
letter of my father to my Uncle Thomas, in which, 
as far back as 1836, he prophesied a noble future 
for you. What would he say now to see you dis- 
mantled and lying low under the heel of the in- 
vader! I am going to write this letter of my 
father's here in my journal. [See Letter, p. 17.] 
Behold, what has now come to the city ! Never 
can I forget the day that the alarm bell rang. I 
never felt so hopeless and forsaken. The wretched 
generals, left here with our troops, ran away and 
left them. Lovell knew not what to do ; some say 
he was intoxicated, some say frightened. Of 
course the greatest confusion prevailed, and every 
hour, indeed almost every moment, brought its 
dreadful rumor. After it was known that the 
gunboats had actually passed, the whole city, both 
camp and street, was a scene of wild confusion. 
The women only did not seem afraid. They were 
all in favor of resistance, no matter how hopeless 
that resistance might be. The second day matters 
wore a more favorable aspect, and the Mayor and 
the City Council assumed a dignified position to- 



JOURNAL OF JULIA LE GRAND 41 

ward the enemy. Flag Officer Farragut demanded 
the unconditional surrender of the town. He was 
told that as brute force, and brute force only, 
gave him the power that he might come and take 
it. He then demanded that we, with our own 
hands, pull down the flag of Louisiana. This I 
am happy to say, was refused. Four days we 
waited, expecting to be shelled, but he concluded 
to waive the point ; so he marched in his marines 
with two cannons and our flag was taken down 
and the old stars and stripes lifted in a dead 
silence. We made a great mistake here ; we should 
have shot the man that brought down the flag, and 
as long as there was a house-top in the city left, 
it should have been hoisted. The French and 
English lay in the Gulf and a French frigate 
came up the river to protect French subjects. 

Farragut allowed the women and children but 
forty-eight hours to leave the city, but the foreign 
consuls demanded a much longer time to move the 
people of their respective nations. If we had been 
staunch and dared them to shell, the Confederacy 
would have been saved. The brutal threat would 
never have been carried out, for England and 
France would never have allowed it. The delay 
would have enabled us to finish our boat, and be- 
sides a resistance would have showed the enemy 
and foreign nations, too, what stuff we were made 
of and how very much we were in earnest. I 



42 JOURNAL OF JULIA LE GEAND 

never wished anything so much in my life as for 
resistance here. I felt no fear — only excitement. 
The ladies of the town signed a paper, praying 
that it should never be given up. We went down 
to put our names on the list, and met the marines 
marching up to the City Hall with their cannon 
in front of them. The blood boiled in my veins — 
I felt no fear — only anger. I forgot myself and 
called out several times: ^^ Gentlemen, don^t let 
the State Flag come down,'' and, *'0h, how can 
you men stand itf Mrs. Norton was afraid of 
me, I believe, for she hurried me off. I have for- 
gotten to mention — at first, the Germans at the 
fort mutinied and turned their guns on their 
officers. In the first place, several gunboats had 
passed the fort at night because a traitor had 
failed to give the signal. He was tried and shot, 
and Duncan telegraphed to the city that no more 
should pass — then came a report that the Yankee 
vessels were out of powder and coal and they 
could not get back to their transports which they 
had expected to follow them. We were quite jubi- 
lant at the idea of keeping them in a sort of im- 
prisonment, and this we could have done but for 
the German mutineers. The wives of these men 
were allowed to visit the fort, and they repre- 
sented the uselessness of the struggle, because 
the city had already surrendered. They were 
told, too, that Duncan intended to blow up the 



JOURNAL OF JULIA LE GRAND 43 

fort over their heads rather than surrender. So 
they spiked their cannon and threatened the lives 
of their officers and then the Yankee fleet poured 
up. These people have complimented us highly. 
To quell a small ^ ^ rebellion, ' ' they have made 
preparations enough to conquer a world. This is 
a most cowardly struggle — these people can do 
nothing without gunboats. Beauregard in Ten- 
nessee can get no battle from them where they are 
protected by these huge block steamers. These 
passive instruments do their fighting for them. 
It is at best a dastardly way to fight. We should 
have had gunboats if the Government had been 
efficient, wise or earnest. We have lost our city, 
the key to this great valley, and my opinion is that 
we will never, never get it more, except by treaty. 
Many think otherwise. The most tantalizing ru- 
mors reach us daily (though the papers are not 
allowed to print our news, we hear it). We have 
heard that Stonewall Jackson has surprised and 
taken Washington City ; that Beauregard has had 
a splendid victory in Tennessee; and our other 
generals have annihilated the enemy in Virginia. 
Sometimes we are elated, but most generally de- 
pressed. My dear, dear brother ! We are filled with 
anxiety for him ! Even if he is spared through this 
fight, when and where can we see him again! I 
feel wretched to think of his hardships and loneli- 
ness, hearing nothing from home. I hope he is 



44 JOUENAL OF JULIA LE GRAND 

not uneasy about ns — for we are to leave the city 
with kind friends — and sister Matilda is in a safe 
place. Mail communication is cut off. I hope he 
is not anxious because he does not hear. 

This is a cruel war. These people are treated 
with the greatest haughtiness by the upper classes 
and rudeness by the lower. They know how they 
are hated and hang their heads. Shopkeepers re- 
fuse to sell to them, and the traitor who hurried 
them up the river has to have a guard. Public 
buildings have been seized by the troops, but so 
far the civil government has not been interfered 
with. I think their plan is to conciliate if possible. 
The cotton and sugar have been burned; that is 
one comfort, and the work of destruction still goes'' 
on on the plantations. I shall never forget the 
long, dreadful night when we Sat with our friends 
and watched the flames from all sorts of valuables 
as the gunboats were coming up the river. 

My dear brother ! If I could only, only hear from 
him ! If I could only see him for but a little while 1 
And if I could be near enough to get to him if he 
were wounded — I would be content. Thoughts of 
the long ago fill my heart as I write, and I feel 
that he may not even be alive while I do so. I 
long so for his safety and do not care for distinc- 
tion. Oh, if we were only all safe and together 
in some quiet land where there would be no war, 
no government even to make war I I long to be rid 



JOURNAL OF JULIA LE GRAND 45 

of the evil and suffering which spring from the 
passions of men ! Clap-trap sentiments and polit- 
ical humbugs! I almost hate the word **Flag*' 
even! 

Mrs. Norton and all our friends are so kind to 
us and we are safe in their hands. Billy Ogden is 
with Claude, and his brother Abner, who served 
at Fort Jackson, is on parole. He is much grieved 
at the surrender of the Fort. No one can leave 
the city without a pass. How I am ever to get this 
I don't know. Mrs. Brown told me to write to- 
night and she would try to get a letter through 
for me to Claude. I am told that a stand will be 
made at Vicksburg. They are working hard at 
batteries there. They will at least delay the gun- 
boats until we can do something that we wish. 
About their having the whole river, that is of 
course only a question of time. Fort Pillow will 
fall, if it has not already done so. Our only hope 
now is from our soldiers in the field, and this 
brings me to my dear brother again and all he will 
have to endure. Sometimes I feel that nothing 
is worth such sacrifice. These States may divide 
and fight one another, too, sometime. This war 
has shaken my faith. Nothing is secure if the 
passions and follies of men can intermeddle. 
Often, though, I feel that these insolent invaders 
with their bragging, should be conquered — come 
what will. Better to die than to be under their 



46 JOURNAL OF JULIA LE GRAND 

rulei The Yankees have established strict quar- 
antine. The people of the town are frightening 
them terribly with tales about the yellow fever. 
We are compelled to laugh at the frequent amus- 
ing accounts we hear of the way in which they are 
treated by boys, Irish women, and the lower 
classes generally. Mr. Soule refused General 
Butler's hand (they were old friends), remarking 
that their intercourse must now be purely official. 
Our Mayor has behaved with great dignity. 
Butler says he will be revenged for the treatment 
he and his troops have received here — so he will, I 
expect, if matters go against us in other places., 
There is some fear that the city will need provi- 
sions very much. The country people won 't send 
in anything ; they are so angry about the surren- 
der. The Texas drovers who were almost here 
as soon as they heard of it, sold their cattle for 
little or nothing just where they were and went 
home again. I wish we were all safe back there 
again. I don 't think Texas will ever be conquered. 
God bless my dear brother; God protect him 
and let us meet once more. I do not feel anxious 
about sister Tilly, only him. I hope he will send 
us a line whenever he can. I hope he will inquire 
about returning soldiers and not let one come in 
without trying to send us a line to say he is well. 
Letters directed to Mrs. Chilton or Charley in 
Hinds County reach us. But I must be careful 



JOURNAL OF JULIA LE GEAND 47 

how I write ; it may reach other eyes. Oh, to say 
good-night to my poor brother. Ginnie is not well. 
Our love to our brother from Jule. 

October 22nd [1862]. Sent this note, or got 
Mrs. Richardson, who has great influence with the 
Federals, to do it for me : 

Genekal Shepley : 

Sir : Some months ago I enclosed to Mrs. S. N. 
Chilton, a sister of Mrs. Shepherd Brown, eighty 
dollars. The envelope containing the money was 
given by Mrs. Brown to a Mr. Burkett, who was 
afterwards arrested for matters wholly uncon- 
nected with it. I applied to General Weitzel, who 
promised to procure the money and leave it with 
my friend, Doctor Cartwright. Since that time I 
have heard nothing of it. 

Eighty dollars is a sum which is a mere nothing 
to a Government authority, but 'tis really some- 
thing to a gentlewoman, away from her connec- 
tions, who has been surprised by a blockade. I 
hope General Shepley will suffer me to remind 
him that no matter of justice is too small to be 
regarded by one who wishes to represent a kindly 
Government. 

Respectfully, 

J. E. LeGrand. 

Afterward called to see General Shepley; got 
promises and nothing more, as might have been 
expected. Federals, in the city at least, don 't dis- 
gorge. General Shepley is a deceitful-looking, 



48 JOURNAL OF JULIA LE GRAND 

querulous man, but has the ambition to be thought 
a gentleman, and therefore does not show off with 
Butler's brutal and theatrical manner. 

Packing up to go to Mississippi City with Mrs. 
Norton and Mrs. Dameron. 

Later: Disappointed, no passports, those given 
by General, or Governor Shepley as they call him, 
proving worthless, Butler having refused to place 
his glorious autograph to one for less than a clear 
thousand or two — suh-rosa, 

A letter to Mrs. Chilton : 

New Orleans, Nov, 17th, 1862, 

Deae Mes. Chilton : 

I have sent you two or three letters and though 
I have once had a line from you, you did not ac- 
knowledge the receipt of anything from me. I 
would have written oftener, but I always feel that 
it is almost unkind to burden anyone with a line 
now-a-days, and besides I am so unfortunate both 
in small and great things that I feel as if I risked 
the letters of other people by enclosing mine with 
them. I would give much to see you all and more 
to meet you without anxiety and dread upon your 
mind. I feel heavy-hearted always and would be 
glad to creep into a cave even, to forget and be at 
rest. I have looked anxiously to hear more of 
Claude, poor worn-out wreck. How I long to see 
him! I pity him all the time. How can he per- 
form the commonest services for himself now. I 




CAPTAIX CHARLES MOALE CROXALL 
Of the Revolutionary Army 

First an ensign in Washington's Flying Camps, present at the battle 

of Long Island ; one of "Maryland's Four Hundred" ; later 

one of the "Prison Ship Martyrs" 

Grandfather of Julia LeGrand 



JOURNAL OF JULIA LE GRAND 49 

long to go to sister in Texas, and if Claude is sure 
of returning to Hinds, will press through to meet 
him. I have some money owing me here which I 
cannot get until next month. I should like to take 
it with me for I have a great horror of being left 
somewhere in a strange place without this arm 
of protection. If that long journey were only 
over. I long so to see my sister. I feel great 

anxiety for her just now. I wonder why G 

was not burned instead of being abandoned. You 
used to doubt my feelings, but it was because you 
did not understand them. I have met no one 
whose ideas of defense were more stringent than 
my own. I would give up all, sacrifice all to 
honor. Wliat is a city compared to a city's good 
name. I was in a rage and frenzy last spring; I 
was so much before the hitherto most violent peo- 
ple that I hardly knew where I was. The love of 
housetops prevailed to a degree that I had never 
formed the most distant idea. The housetops 
were preserved intact and we are all reaping the 
benefit of what they shelter. Yet I feel just as I 
used to do, that this honor and truth do not 
belong to any land exclusively. I have had ample 
proof of this. Men of Northern birth here have 
gone to prison as bravely and nobly as any, while 
our own people have been in many instances recre- 
ant. It is a safe philosophy which teaches us a 
love for the good and hatred of the bad of all 
lands, and a resistance to the death of all invaders. 
I ache to think of all the horrors that have fallen 
and that are yet to fall. There is no hope left in 
me. I do not talk much, but the suppressed life 
of pain which I lead is enough to kill a stronger 



50 JOURNAL OF JULIA LE GRAND 

person. We lead a lonely, anxious life and are 
sick most always. Come what will, you must think 
of us always as friends of the old time. I think 
of the oldj old time before all of the illusions 
faded until my heart feels like breaking. Be kind 
to my poor dilapidated soldier, should he return 
to you. Give love to each and all of the children. 
Tell Charley that I am gratified to see that he re- 
members us. Tell him I have heard alarming 
reports of him — is he about to surrender his free- 
dom? I would be in at the death if I knew when 
the solemn sacrifice is to be made. There was a 
great frolic on board the English ship, the 
Rinaldo, a few nights ago. The contraband flag 
waved freely over seas of red wine and promon- 
tories of sugar-work. Mr. F , of the little 

Sanctuary, made I thought a dreadful concession 
last spring and I never went to hear him after- 
ward. He was married, unhappily, I think, about 
two months ago. Latterly he has acted quite a 
bold part and is now in a prison at the North. 
He called from the ship as he went off: ^^When I 
come back the Confederate flag will wave over 
New Orleans. Hurrah for Jeff Davis ! ' * 

J. E. Le Grand. 

Copied into the Journal : 

BUTLEB AND HiS BROTHER. 

Two brothers came to New Orleans, 

Both were the name of "Butler," 
The one was Major-General, 

The other only Sutler. 
The first made proclamations, 

That were fearful to behold: 



JOUENAL OF JULIA LE GRAND 51 

While the sutler dealt out rations. 

And took his pay in gold 
From women that were starving, 

When the Yankee Doodles came; 
This was his way of carving out 

The road that leads to fame. 
The sutler had some excuse, 

The truth I'll not smother; 
While making money like the deuce. 

He gave one half to Brother. 

Chobus: 
Hurrah, Hurrah, Hurrah, 

The ass and mule will bray. 
The Rebels think that ev'ry dog 

Is bound to have his day. 

[** Stonewall Jackson's Way/* written by 
Dr. John Williamson Palmer, was here copied by 
Julia Le Grand into her diary. Although she does 
not say so, Doctor Palmer was her relative. His 
mother was Catherine Croxall, daughter of James 
Croxall, of Baltimore. A. B. C] 

A letter to Mrs. Shepherd Brown : 

New Orleans, Nov, 17th, 1862, 
Dear Mrs. B : 



I have nothing to say, and might not say it 
if I did have it, for you know there is a heavi- 
ness prevailing in this latitude, which is not 
favorable to expansion of idea. I only send a 
line to remind you that I live and wish you to 



52 JOUENAL OF JULIA LE GRAND 

remember me. A dull and heavy anxiety has set- 
tled upon us. We hear nothing upon which we 
can rely, and know nothing to which we can cling 
with comfort. Those who come in say there is 
much joy beyond the lines, but no one can give 
the why and wherefore. In the meantime we are 
leading the lives which women have lead since 
Troy fell ; wearing away time with memories, re- 
grets and fears; alternating fits of suppression, 
with flights, imaginary, to the red fields where 
great principles are contended for, lost and won ; 
while men, more privileged, are abroad and astir, 
making name and fortune and helping to make a 
nation. There was a frolic on board the English 
ship a few nights since for the benefit, the Delta 
says, of Secession women. I did not go, though 
Miss Betty Callender offered her services in the 
way of invitation. I am told that the contraband 
*' bonny-blue flag'' waved freely over seas of red 
wine and promontories of sugar-work. The ship 
represents secessiondom just now; it has not a 
stronghold in the city. Many a lady opened her 
vial of wrath, I suppose, for all were told that 
freedom of speech should be the order of the 
night. There was acting and dancing, and fish, 
flesh and fowl suffered in the name of our cause. 
Toasts were drunk to our great spirits to whom it 
seems the destiny of a nation is entrusted. How 
my heart warms to the weary, battle-stained 
heroes. I never fancied carpet knights even 
before the stern trial came. 

I can't tell you what a life of suppression we 
lead. I feel it more because I know and feel all 
that is going on outside. I am like a pent-up 



JOURNAL OF JULIA LE GRAND 53 

volcano. I wish I had a field for my energies. I 
hate common life, a life of visiting, dressing and 
tattling, which seems to devolve on women, and 
now that there is better work to do, real tragedy, 
real romance and history weaving every day, I 
sniffer, suffer, leading the life I do. 
"" The Episcopal clergy are true. Three have 
been sent to prison, the rest are under marching 
orders. When the ship was leaving, Mr. Fulton's 
last cry was, ^^When I return the Confederate 
flag will wave over New Orleans. Hurrah for 
Jeff Davis ! ' ' You will feel an interest I hope in 
my poor, dilapidated brother if you see him. He 
looks rough because he neglects his appearance, 
but there is no truer gentleman than he, no truer, 
braver or less selfish. I long so to see him and 
render the service he must need with only one 
arm. Things go on just as they did. Daily life 
presents the same food for sorrowful reflection. 
Tiger, Jake and Emma hold their own within 
doors, and nothing has happened to prevent us 
from parading the streets without. A shrill horn 
breaks often upon my sad speculations. I rush 
out perhaps and sometimes find a train of striped 
and bestarred cavalry and sometimes only an 
orange cart. **What an age we live in,'' says 
philosophy, and goes in again to repine and won- 
der. The Advocate was suppressed an hour or 
two ago, but the pliant Jacob made haste to 
smooth his phrases. A quarrel is reported be- 
tween the French admiral and the General. There 
has been a great commotion about the money sent 
from the New Orleans bank. Lemore has gone to 
prison and some others. Where are our people? 



54 JOURNAL OF JULIA LE GRAND 

Can't you contrive to let me into the secret, if 
you have any! You can't read if I keep on, so 
good-bye, with best wishes to all. 
Ever your friend, 

J. E. LeGband. 

December 20th [1862]. 

The Ladies' Farewell to Brutal Ferocity Butler. 

We fill this cup to one made up 

Of beastliness alone, 
The caitiff of his dastard crew, 

The seeming paragon, 
Who had a coward heart bestowed, 

And brutal instincts given 
In fiendish mirth, then spawned on earth 

To shame the God of Heaven; 
His every tone is murder's own 

Like those unhallowed birds 
Who feed on corpses, and the lie 

Dwells ever in his words. 
His very face a living curse 

To mankind's lofty state. 
Marked with the stain of branded Cain, 

None knew him but to hate. 
Fair woman's fame he makes his game, 

On children wreaks his spite, 
A tyrant mid his bayonets. 

He never dared to fight. 
Think you a mother's holy smile 

Ere beamed for him? Ah, no. 
The jackal nursed the whelp accursed, 

Humanity's worst foe. 
On every hand, in every land 

The scoundrel is despised, 



JOURNAL OF JULIA LE GRAND 55 

In Butler's name the foulest wrongs 

And crimes are all comprised. 
'Twill live the sign of infamy 

Unto time's utmost verge, 
Ages unborn will tell in scorn, 

Of him, as mankind's scourge. 
We fill this cup to one made up 

Of beastliness alone; 
The vampire of his Yankee crew. 

The lauded paragon. 
Farewell and if in h — 1 there dwell ^ 

A demon such as thou 
Then Satan yield thy scepter up — 

Thy mission's over now. 

I copied this parody of Pickney's beautiful 
poem almost in sorrow, to see anything so filled 
with sweet and tender fancies so desecrated, but 
these things are waifs borne on the wind, indicat- 
ing whence they blow, and, as such, are valuable. 
The town of late has been flooded with things of 
this kind. Bank's arrival and Butler's disgrace 
has created a vent for a long pent-up disgust. It 
would have been nobler, perhaps, to have had 
these papers circulated while Butler was here in 
power, but men cannot indulge in such pastimes 
when cruel balls and chains and dark prison forts 
are waiting for them. Butler then, after his long, 
disgusting stay here has been compelled to yield 
his place, his sword, and much of his stolen 
property. 

General Banks has, so far, by equitable rule 



56 JOURNAL OF JULIA LE GRAND 

commanded the respect of his enemies. We know 
him as an enemy, it is true, but an honest and 
respectable one. Every rich man is not his 
especial foe, to be robbed for his benefit. • Butler 
left on the steamer Spaulding, was accompanied 
to the wharf by a large crowd, to which he took 
otf his hat. There was not one hurrah, not one 
sympathizing cry went up for him from the vast 
crowd which went to see him off — a silent rebuke.^ 
I wonder if he felt it ! 

Ginnie saw Julia Ann in the street to-day; did 
not speak but watched her closely. She left us 
during the summer, having previously stolen 
money from our box. We had so spoiled her that 
she would not take the trouble to answer unless 
she pleased. She pouted always, and passed all 
of her time in the street. She was persuaded off 
by a policeman 's wife. She had been with us ever 
since an infant — about our person — and was con- 
sequently associated with much that is past and 
dear. Though she behaved ill often, we would not 
allow her to be punished, and the day she ran 
away was as unhappy a one as I ever passed, 
though I tried to conceal my feelings from the 
other servants. Some days after her flight a police- 
man took her up in the street and was about to 
convey her to jail. She preferred being brought 
to us, she said, and we gave the man ten dollars to 
leave her here, as she cried and appeared to be re- 



JOURNAL OF JULIA LE GRAND 57 

pentant. She stayed at Mrs. Waugh's, where we 
were obliged to place her near us, just three days. 
We had not even cast a reproach upon her for her 
behavior, but encouraged her in every way. Mrs. 
Norton wanted us to let her go to jail and when 
she ran away again I believe felt much triumph 
over us for our continued confidence in her. We 
had made every effort to bring Julie up an honor- 
able and even high-toned woman, but she pre- 
ferred lying to confidence, stealing to asking, and 
a life of vagrancy to a respectable and comfort- 
able one. I have learned this lesson both from 
experience and observation that negroes only re- 
spect those they fear. 

Heard to-day of the existence of a negro society 
here called the '^vaudo** (I believe). All who 
join it promise secrecy on pain of death. Naked 
men and women dance around a huge snake and 
the room is suddenly filled with lizards and other 
reptiles. The snake represents the devil which 
these creatures worship and fear. The existence 
of such a thing in New Orleans is hard to believe. 
I had read of such a thing in a book which. Doctor 
Cartwright gave us, but he is so imaginary and 
such a determined theorist that I treated it almost 
as a jest. The thing is a living fact. The police 
have broken up such dens, but their belief and 
forms of worship are a secret. These people 
would be savages again if free. I find that no 



58 JOURNAL OF JULIA LE GRAND 

negroes discredit the power of the snake; those 
who do not join the society abstain from fear and 
not from want of faith. 

December 31st [1862]. I write, this beautiful 
last day of December, with a heart filled with 
anxiety and sorrow; with my own sad history 
that of others mingles. Our side has gained again. 
The Confederate banner floats in pride and secur- 
ity, but who can help mourning over the details of 
that ghastly battle of the Rappahannock. Oh, 
Burnside ! moral coward to lead men, the sons of 
women, into such a slaughter-pen to gratify a 
senseless president and a tyrannical giver of 
orders ! 

Our town is filled with rumors. There has been 
a bloody fight at Port Hudson, it is said, and the 
brazen cannon which we have so often seen 
dragged through these streets have all been taken 
by our Confederate troops. Banks has ordered 
the return of the Federal troops sent up the river 
so proudly and confidently a short while ago, but 
it is reported that they are so surrounded by the 
Confederates that they cannot extricate them- 
selves. It is rumored that we are to have a negro 
insurrection in the New Year (New Year's Day). 
The Federal Provost-Marshal has given orders 
that the disarmed Confederates may now arm 
again and shoot down the turbulent negroes (like 
dogs). This after inciting them by every means 



JOURNAL OF JULIA LE GRAND 59 

to rise and slay tlieir masters. I feel no fear, 
but many are in great alarm. I have had no 
fear of physical ill through all this dreary sum- 
mer of imprisonment, but it may come at last. 
Fires are frequent — it is feared that incendiaries 
are at work. Last night was both cold and windy. 
The bells rang out and the streets resounded with 
cries. I awoke from sleep and said, *' Perhaps the 
moment has come." Well, well, perhaps it is 
scarcely human to be without fear. I wonder my 
Ginnie and I cannot feel as others do — whether we 
suffer too much in heart to fear in body, or 
whether we lack that realizing sense of danger 
which forces us to prepare for it. Mrs. Norton 
has a hatchet, a tomahawk, and a vial of some 
kind of spirits with which she intends to blind all 
invaders. We have made no preparations, but if 
the worst happen we will die bravely no doubt. 

The cars passed furiously twice about midnight, 
or later; we were all awaked by sounds so un- 
usual. There are patrols all over the city and 
every preparation has been made to meet the 
insurrectionists. I indeed expect no rising now, 
though some of the Federals preach to the negroes 
in the churches, calling on them to ^^ sweep us 
away forever.'' General Banks is not like 
Butler ; he will protect us. The generality of the 
soldiers hate the negroes and subject them to 
great abuse whenever they can. This poor, silly 



60 JOURNAL OF JULIA LE GRAND 

race has been made a tool of — enticed from their 
good homes and induced to insult their masters. 
They now lie about, destitute and miserable, with- 
out refuge and without hope. They die in num- 
bers and the city suffers from their innumerable 
thefts. 

Christmas passed off quietly, and, to us, sadly. 
The ladies gave a pleasant dinner to the Confed- 
erate prisoners of war now in the city. Rumors 
from Lafourche that Weitzel has been defeated. 
His resignation was sent on the Spaulding, but 
has not been received yet by the President. He 
resigns, they say, to marry an heiress. Miss 
Gaskett. She, a Creole of Louisiana, consents to 
marry one who has spent months in command of 
soldiers who have been desolating her country. 



II. 

Januaey 1 — January 28, 1863. 

January 1st [1863]. The long expected negro 
dinner did not come off. Banks has forbidden all 
public demonstrations. During Butler *s reign a 
great many wooden figures, painted black and 
wearing chains, were made for exhibition on this 
occasion. The programme was a procession bear- 
ing along these figures, which were to be met by 
the goddess of liberty, who was to break their 
chains. One may imagine the scene if it had only 
been acted out. The Ogden girls in from Green- 
ville. Lizzie in much distress ; came to tell a tale 
which she did not wish us to hear from others. 
It seems a young naval officer, attracted towards 
the girls from having met them on the cars, has 
got the family physician, Doctor Campbell, to take 
him to the judge's house. The judge met the 
gentleman on the railroad, and, though hating the 
sight of a Federal officer, was weak enough to 
express no disapprobation of his visits. The girls 
fearing to hurt the old doctor's feelings, enter- 
tained the officer to the best of their ability. The 
young gentleman came every day ; brought books, 
also some of his naval friends. The judge was in 
distress and the girls, no matter how they felt, 

61 



62 JOUENAL OF JULIA LE GRAND 

knew that friendly intercourse with those against 
whom four of their brothers are in arms, was not 
proper. Eemarks were made by the neighbors 
and the Harrison family especially had been very 
bitter, she said. Jule, who reads novels, asserted 
defiantly that *^no one had a right to speak of 
what they pleased to do ; indeed, she had read of 
instances where passages of romantic love had 
passed between rebel ladies and English officers 
(always officers) in our first revolution. ' ' ^^^This 
is a war for the union, Lizzie,'' said I, ''therefore 
we should avoid carefully any show of entertain- 
ing union feelings ; besides it is scarcely decorous 
to take a hand in friendship which is red with 
Confederate blood. If Lieutenant Hale had been 
a gentleman he would not have entered your house 
as he did, knowing that true Southerners are com- 
promised by receiving Federals. In the next place 
I don 't think he would have brought you Harper 's 
illustrated papers, in which the Confederates 
come off second best, to say the least of it. If 
Lieutenant Hale was ill and needed help I would 
not hesitate to give it to him, but as a guest I 
would not receive him. No woman 's smile should 
cheer these invaders. There is a latent disrespect 
of us when they force their way into our houses, 
and we make tacit acknowledgment of want of 
self-respect when we receive them. I would not 
be rude, for rudeness in a woman is always vulgar, 



JOUENAL OF JULIA LE GRAND 63 

but you can freeze those young gentlemen with 
sucli glances and quicken them with such politely 
pointed remarks, that they will not wish to come 
again.'* This I said because she was afraid they 
would injure their father if he should forbid them 
the house. The girls have little knowledge of char- 
acter, but are kind and good and have all the soft 
instincts of a lady. Mary Harrison was in; re- 
ports a larger camp in Greenville than ever be- 
fore. We told her of the supposed bitterness to 
the Ogdens\ It was, as I thought, a misunder- 
standing. 

Reports of Confederate victories fill the town. 
There is great excitement and many women are 
jubilant. I, too, am glad that we are safe from 
conquest and desolation ; each victory makes this 
assurance doubly sure, yet even a great victory to 
one 's own side is a sad thing to a lover of human- 
ity. I accept a bloody triumph only as the least 
of two evils. My friends, I think, look upon me as 
half Yankee. They say my state of feeling is un- 
natural. Men's suffering always excites me, let 
the men be who they may. When it comes to 
^ ' oath-of -allegiance ' ' taking, I am staunch; let 
me lose what I may by refusing. Only yesterday 
I held argument with some that they should not 
accept their slaves on the plea that Louisiana is a 
''loyaP' State. I wouldn't take mine on such a 
plea, because it should be our individual pride now 



64 JOUENAL OF JULIA LE GRAND 

to prove that Louisiana is not a loyal State. This 
is called romance. I plead with my acquaintances 
last summer to resist the unlawful taxation which 
Butler ordered. I tied up my few relics to bear to 
prison with me, when he ordered the police to 
report each inmate of households who had not 
taken the oath with as good faith as I ever had 
done anything in my life. When I see these officers 
I do not hide the scorn I feel. I cannot conde- 
scend to smile or render more than a haughty 
politeness, even though I lose my object by it, yet 
I am thought wavering in my faith to the Confed- 
erate cause because I can still pity the slain foe 
and the sufferings of the living — and because I 
cannot hurrah for a victory. Of course I rejoice 
that the Fredericksburg and Vicksburg heights 
have not been carried, but my heart bleeds in- 
wardly at the bloody reports. These men have 
many to mourn them at home, and their love of 
life was as ours. It is true they need not have 
joined in such unholy war, yet numbers perhaps 
have not been moved by evil motives. There is 
no infatuation so baleful that good men by artful 
tongues cannot be brought within its influence. 
The human mind is a strange thing — professing 
forever to seek happiness and truth, it constantly 
immolates one and crushes out the other. Oh, 
these are sad days and I regret that I ever lived to 
see them. I hope our country will be spared an- 




COLONEL CLAUDIUS FRANCIS LeGRAND 

{From an ori(/iii<tI pahitlng by He<ily) 

Born in France: fought in the War of 1812 under Perry 
Father of Julia LeGrand 



JOURNAL OF JULIA LE GRAND 65 

other revolution, but I doubt it. Bad politicians 
will never be wanting to stir up evil for the sake 
of gain. Since the Constitution of our forefathers 
has been forgotten, the security seems to have 
gone from everything. 

The Picayune gives a long account of victories 
in Tennessee and at Vicksburg; we have slain 
many, taken prisoners many, and sunk ships. A 
report was circulated that the Texans had recov- 
ered Galveston, sunk some Federal vessels and 
captured others. This was believed by Confeder- 
ates and hooted at by Unionists. Bets are passed 
but I feel in no humor for such things. We asked 
Mr. Roselius, our neighbor, of the news and were 
advised by him to believe no ^ ^ such trash ' ' as that, 
but on the morning of the 5th of January the 
Yankee Delta admits the truth. The Harriet Lane 
was boarded just after the moon had set and, after 
a desperate struggle, captured. The Westerfield, 
Commodore Renshaw, was threatened, but he 
blew up the vessel. The Delta claims a glorious 
martyrdom for him and his crew, as they were all 
destroyed with the vessel, but report proclaims 
the loss of life an accident, the blowing up of the 
boat only being intended. We had but four gun- 
boats — half launch, half old steamers — yet the 
Federals here claim that their ^ ^ fleet ^' escaped 
from them. Two companies of the 42nd Massa- 
chxisetts regiment were captured, also two trans- 



66 JOURNAL OF JULIA LE GRAND 

ports. This fight has made a profound and awful 
impression on me. It was bold, it was glorious ! 
I can imagine our men, on their insecure crafts, 
stealing out into the bay under cover of darkness ; 
the suspense, the surprise, the desperate, bloody 
struggle, the contending emotions of fear and 
hate, the confusion, the triumph, and, last of all, 
the horrible explosion. Ah, when will they let us 
go in peace and such things cease ! Mrs. Roselius, 
as great a Southerner as exists, comes over every 
day to talk her ^^good Southern talk,'^ she says. 
She leaves her husband, who, though a native of 
Louisiana, is a Unionist. We have a sort of con- 
tention on political subjects whenever we meet. 
He wanted to bring some good Federal officers in. 
I told him ^^that he had better not try it,'' and 
Ginnie laughingly said ^'if he could find a good 
one he might bring him in.'' 

January 8th [1863]. To-day a great show of 
artillery; no other parade that I see. This day, 
sacred to a victory over a foreign foe [battle of 
New Orleans, 1815], finds us in a sad plight. We 
Confederates are victorious, but over those who 
should have been our brothers. Went with Mrs. 
Dameron to look over her sister's house (Mrs. 
Shepherd Brown), which has just been given up 
by one set of Federals, and another has moved 
in — General Banks and staff. We missed lace 
curtains, some parlor ornaments, and the beauti- 



JOURNAL OF JULIA LE GRAND 67 

ful picture of the Magdalen. We were treated 
politely by servant and orderly; with the latter 
we had a long talk. He is from Boston, whither 
he longs to return. I think he would be glad of 
peace on any terms. I felt not the least bitterness 
towards the poor fellow, who looks sad enough. 
We talked our views freely. I told him that my 
brother had last been seen in a battle of ^*Stone- 
walPs*' with this very General Banks. Banks 
was defeated, but I didn't remind him of it. We 
took a glass of Yankee ice water. Mrs. Dameron 
was kind and gentle, though she had many rea- 
sons for anger, seeing these people in her absent 
sister's house with the household relics scattered 
and the carpets worn and faded with Federal 
footsteps ; she was driven out of her other sister's 
house earlier in the fall; this last, the finest in 
town, is occupied by General Shepley, as they 
call him. Can there be a Governor who has never 
power to do anything! When I was there to see 
his lordship with Mrs. Norton, the house and fur- 
niture looked so familiar and natural that I sat 
there speechless at first, speculating on the 
strange state of things. Once I was near opening 
Mrs. Brown's bed-room door. His lordship kept 
us waiting a long while, and when he came in with 
his deceitful smile I did hate him, the vulgar- 
minded official who imagines that place will make 
him a gentleman. I have heard that he was one 



68 JOUENAL OF JULIA LE GE^ND 

at home, but his voice betrays him. I made as 
biting remarks as the business would admit of. 
He gave me a side glance of hatred from his 
leaden eye. Mrs. Norton ^'gave it to him/^ to use 
her own words, but being the mother of the lady 
whose house and furniture he had taken posses- 
sion of, he felt as if he could bear with her I 
suppose. 

Mrs. Norton called at her daughter, Mrs. Har- 
rison's, house before Butler's people left it, and 
asked that the sheep might be put out of the yard, 
as they were ruining the beautiful shrubbery. 
The mulatto at the gate gave her much insolence ; 
told her "to go about her own business," he in- 
tended that the sheep should stay there, that the 
shrubbery should be destroyed, and that if she 
had a daughter "he intended to come and see 
her." My blood ran cold when she told me this, 
and for the first time I realized our position here 
among these lawless negroes. Mrs. Norton told 
General Shepley that she demanded of him as a 
gentleman and a ruler to have that man punished. 
She asked him what he would feel if a negro 
should tell him that he would visit his daughters. 
"I would knock him down," replied the stalwart 
Governor. "Then," says Mrs. Norton, "I de- 
mand that you punish him for me. ' ' The smiling 
Governor promised to go immediately and have 
him arrested, but that was the last of it. I won- 



JOURNAL OF JULIA LE GRAND 69 

der how a man contrives to smile so, yet look 
querulous? I recalled Shakespeare when I met 
him, ''a man may smile and smile, etc.'' We had 
an interview with Colonel French. Mrs. Norton 
went to get her husband's old gun (her husband 
had been dead for many years), which she had 
given up last summer for fear that the negroes 
would have her arrested, as many have been for 
retaining weapons. ^^ French could do nothing; 
we must go to General Banks' people." This 
gentleman has nestled himself in Judge Pinck- 
ard's house, a very sweet one. He was polite 
enough, and our interview was soon over.^ He 
looks like a great overgrown schoolboy with a 
lovely complexion, but there is no play of intelli- 
gence either in his face or manner. The Yankee 
Delta calls him the ^'gorgeous French." His 
dress was gorgeous, being laced with gold or 
brass in all directions. 

Called this evening on Madame Frangois; 
met her daughter, a delicate creole, married 
to a real robustious Englishman who has 
grown rich and important in this country; 
heard from him that the Federals acknowl- 
edge the capitulation of Rosecranz and the 4,000 
men; heard also that the bombarding fleet has 
left Vicksburg to return to Memphis, for fear of 
being cut off. Banks has requested, so report 
says, that no more news be printed until tomor- 



70 JOURNAL OF JULIA LE GRAND 

row, as the town is in a dreadfully excited state. 
He need not fear; the excitement of joy rarely 
injures. A flag of truce has come in — report says 
that Banks has refused to receive it. This cannot 
be so as I see prisoners are to be exchanged. It 
might not have been allowed to enter town for 
fear of excitement; the heart of the city warms 
to the Confederate uniform. Last summer when 
it was a rare sight here, we all went to a friend's 
house to see a young Confederate captain who, 
after being confined in the custom house for some 
time, was allowed to be out on parole. The Ogden 
girls were with us. After we arrived we found the 
young man, a Texan, so exceedingly diffident that 
we were abashed. He was so alarmed that he 
was quite alarming. His name was Blount, and a 
more sincere, ingenuous and stalwart young sol- 
dier I could not wish to rely upon in time of need. 
He has long since been exchanged. I saw in the 
paper to-day that General Chalmers is wounded. 
His sister-in-law was here a few days ago, ex- 
pressing great uneasiness for her husband, who 
is General Chalmers' brother, and upon General 
Chalmer 's staff. She hears nothing from him and 
cannot get a passport to go out. The registered 
enemies were on the eve of departure when Banks 
arrived ; General Butler had issued an order that 
they should leave, bearing with them baggage to 
the amount of $50 only. Hundreds were disap- 



JOURNAL OF JULIA LE GRAND 71 

pointed when Banks issued another order, chang- 
ing the entire programme. Many families had 
parted with everything, having reserved only 
enough to bear them out, and now they are suffer- 
ing. Passports are not sold now as in Butler's 
day, and we rarely hear from beyond the lines. 
I never hear from my dear ones in Texas ; the few 
lines from poor Claude, written with his left hand, 
being the last I received. He was then on his way 
from Virginia, having bid good-bye to *4ines and 
tented fields" and left one gallant arm behind 
him. He stopped with Mrs. Chilton, who lives at 
Jackson, a day or two; there, I hear, he got a 
situation in the commissary department in Texas. 
January 9th [1863]. A very sad day to Ginnie 
and myself. I was careless enough to leave the 
key in my trunk, for I shall never, never learn 
to lock up, and my purse with $30 or $40 was 
taken out. There is a child in the house who 
stays to wait on us in our rooms, the greatest 
story-teller in the world; she is accused, and I 
suppose will be punished. If I had lost it in the 
street I should not have felt so unhappy about it. 
Punishment of no matter how great a criminal 
afflicts me. I have gone into the room in which 
Mrs. Norton has locked Harriet, to try and move 
her to tell the truth. She has been singing and 
amusing herself, while we have been suffering 
for her. She vows that she never touched the 



72 JOURNAL OF JULIA LE GRAND 

purse, yet no one else was in our room. I feel 
miserable lest she may be punished wrongfully. 
She is considered so dreadfully bad that she never 
gets a kind word from any one. The servants hate 
her and her old grandmother, who has taught her 
to lie and steal, almost beats her to death some- 
times. Ginnie and I have been very kind to her, 
and she has waited on us so cheerfully and with 
so much apparent affection, that I feel an inde- 
scribable pang at the idea of having brought her 
into trouble. She says she would not have stolen 
from us. Oh, well, we are always in trouble of 
some sort. I feel so low in health and spirits that 
I wonder sometimes what more can happen. We 
have had $303.50 stolen in less than two years. 
It is our habit to be gentle with dependents, 
though we are proud and exacting with our equals. 
I begin to think that this is bad policy. The world 
will not let us be what we wish ; it seems a part 
of chivalry, to my mind, to be gentle to the lowly 
and proud to the high. I have always practiced 
this, both from impulse and principle, but I must 
admit that I have always suffered for it. 

Mrs. Norton called on General Banks to-day. 
She wished us to go with her, but we were not 
well enough. The orderly did not present her 
card, so the gentle-mannered ruler demanded of 
her quite bluntly who she was. ^^The mother of 
Mrs, Harrison,'' she returned. ''What Mrs. 



JOURNAL OF JULIA LE GRAND 73 

Harrison r* **The mother of the lady whose 
house you occupy.'' He started visibly, but 
roughly demanded, *^What do you want?" She 
stated her desire to sell her house, but as she had 
not taken the oath of allegiance to the United 
States she didn 't know if the sale would be lawful. 
He had no objection, he said; is that all you 
want? She then asked him if Mr. Harrison were 
to return to New Orleans would he be compelled 
to take the oath. *^I know nothing about it," re- 
turned the polite general. *^I would be obliged if 
you would tell me who does know, as I had thought 
you are the very person to whom I should apply. ' ' 
"^The General scarcely waited to hear her remark 
before turning on his heel to leave her. Other 
ladies were present with their requests. To each 
and all he spoke rudely. Having waited in vain 
for his return to the room, they all left. These 
people rob us of our houses, make laws forbid- 
ding us to sell property, or to leave town, or in 
fact to do anything without their permission, yet 
they are angry and rude when one calls on this 
necessary business. Men have been snatched up 
without knowing wherefore and kept in forts or 
in the custom house, and their wives and friends 
have been treated as impudent intruders for even 
making inquiry after them. Mr. "Wilkinson, 
grandson of old General Wilkinson of the last 
war, has just got out of confinement, having been 



74 JOURNAL OF JULIA LE GRAND 

placed in same by Butler on the testimony of a 
negro woman — offence, keeping arms in his 
house — with the town filled with homeless, lawless 
negroes who commit robberies and other offences 
daily. I never realized until this Yankee rule here 
how many bad men America had produced. I 
took a walk with Katie Wilkinson ; poor girl, she 
lost her father in the battle of Manassas, the last 
Manassas. She was devoted to him and he was 
fondly attached to his girls. 

January 10th [1863]. A long train of artillery 
has just passed. The news is kept from us as 
much as possible, but it is thought that the men 
are on their way to attack Port Hudson. The 
mortar boats have been brought from Mobile and 
are now lying here, some think, to shell this place 
in case of attack by Confederates, but for the 
Port Hudson attack, I think. Many rumors are 
afloat as to our recognition by France; some 
think the matter already settled, that Slidell was 
received by Louis Napoleon on 1st January. We 
look eagerly for news; we are prepared to fight 
our own battles, yet recognition is longed for. 
Once, how the thought of foreign interference 
would have fired our blood ! I can scarcely com- 
prehend my own feelings. I do hate those bloody 
wretches who have made war upon us, and I glory 
in our Southern chivalry, but I feel towards the 
Government of the United States as if it had been 



JOURNAL OF JULIA LE GRAND 75 

seized by usurpers. I feel that we should have 
retained the old flag, as we alone held fast to the 
Constitution. The Yankees have no right to it; 
they have been persecutors and meddlers even 
from the witch-burning time until now. I wish 
that we may part with them forever, yet I cannot 
look at an old map of our country, magical word, 
without a strange thrill at my heart. Mr. Roselius 
passed by just now — sneered at our Confederate 
victories. Says we '11 get back New Orleans when 
the *^ geese have teeth. ^' I was informed by a 
friend later in the day that geese have splendid 
rows of very sharp teeth. I sent Mr. Roselius a 
teasing message on the subject. In truth, though, 
the taking back of the city which involves the 
misery of so many is no subject for jesting. 

January 12th [1863]. ^^ Picayune extra' ^ is 
called through the streets to-day and late to-night. 
Terrible slaughter at the battle of Murfreesboro 
on both sides ; all Rosecranz 's staff killed ; Breck- 
enridge's division on our side defeated; the Fed- 
erals mowed down by thousands and their 
slaughter, especially in officers, to use their own 
words, ''heartrending." The dauntless Confed- 
erates, our splendid braves, went down by thou- 
sands, leaving many a sweet babe fatherless and 
many a widow mourning. Ah, when will this 
deadly, wild war be past? The Monitor is de- 
stroyed. Lincoln about to take the field in person, 



76 JOURNAL OF JULIA LE GRAND 

and McClellan restored to command. He is the 
only Federal general I either fear or respect. 
Two long trains of artillery passed our door 
to-day. 

One young officer particularly attracted my at- 
tention; he looked so truly gallant — some moth- 
er 's darling, I know. In his young enthusiasm he 
has come to fight for the Union ; he will die for 
it, probably, without in any way contributing to 
its restoration. We find a great difference in the 
appearance of Banks ' troops and those of Butler ; 
the last appeared to be mere scum of the earth, 
nevertheless I am sorry for them because they 
suffer. A Federal officer stopped at Mrs. Harri- 
son's gate a day or two ago, asking a few rosebuds 
that he might press them to send to his wife; 
there are no flowers where she is now. This pure 
remembrance and thought of the soldier touched 
me. I was touched, too, at the remark of a private 
passing the gate. ^^Here I am,'' said he, ^*so 
many miles from home, and not a soul that cares 
a damn whether I live or die, or what becomes of 
me. ' ' Another remarked, when the newsboy cried 
out '^a new order," ^^I wish it were an order for 
peace and one to go home." Mrs. Norton got 
quite impatient with Miss Marcella Wilkinson 
to-day for praising several of the officers who had 
been kind to her family, and interested themselves 
in procuring the release of her brother, who had 



JOURNAL OF JULIA LE GRAND 77 

been arrested by Butler. Mrs. N thinks no 

one can be a true Southerner and praise a Yankee. 
She thought it no honor ^^to be treated decently 
by one of the wretches ; she wished the devils were 
all killed.'* There is a difference even among 
devils, it seems, as some of Banks* people do try 
to be kind to us, while Butler's were just the re- 
verse. How few people have an enlarged liber- 
ality! I wonder if it will ever be possible for a 
novelist to render to view the faults of his coun- 
trymen in this land; the mention of one failing 
even in private conversation raises a sort of 
storm, not always polite either. I am thought all 
sorts of things because I endeavor to do justice 
to all parties; one day I am an abolitionist, an- 
other a Yankee, another too hot a ^' rebel,** an- 
other all English, and sometimes I love my 
Maryland, and no other State ; all the while I love 
my own land, every inch of it, better than all the 
world and feel a burning desire ever kindling in 
my heart that my countrymen should be first in all 
the world for virtue. They are so kind, so gener^ 
ous, so brave, so gallant to women that I desire 
for them all the good that belongs to human char- 
acter, the graces of chivalry as well as its sturdy 
manhood, and the elegant liberality of philosophy 
and benevolence. 

Went with Mrs. Dameron and Ginnie to look 
at a house, after the sale of her home ; we found 



78 JOURNAL OF JULIA LE GRAND 

one room filled with pretty furniture, which the 
old man said he could not remove without asking 
Banks, or Clark, or some of our Yankee rulers, 
the owners thereof having left town when it was 
captured and being Confederates, their property 
having been seized. We found a garden filled with 
sweet blooming roses and jessamines and violets ; 
also an old picture which interested me, ^ ^ The Sol- 
dier 's Dream,'' the foreground representing a 
man covered with a blanket by a rude camp fire ; 
the background, which is misty and dreamlike, 
presents a woman and little ones clasping a re- 
turned soldier almost at the hamlet door. This 
picture made me very sad. It suits our present 
times very well. Will men ever be civilized and 
let war cease? Did not go out again all day, but 
saw several visitors in our rooms; I hate the 
squares and streets and would be content in a 
prison to be rid of them. 

January 14th [1863]. Just this moment got a 
letter from Mrs. Chilton ; it came from Vicksburg, 
where she has been to attend Miss Emanuel's 
wedding. She went by boat with a flag of truce. 
She writes enigmatically, but informs us, who un- 
derstand her, that all is safe in that region for 
our Confederate arms; she has just heard from 
our dear Claude, whom she calls Claudine, who 
writes with his poor left hand from Texas. All 
well and all safe there. She has just written to 



JOUENAL OF JUTJA LE GRAND 79 

our dear sister there that we are well ; I wish she 
could have said happy. I feel grateful to hear 
even through others when so many here are cut 
off entirely. Mrs. Stone has lost her young son 
in the army ; so also has Mrs. Prentiss. How my 
heart aches for the poor desolate mothers in this 
cruel war. Mr. Brink came up with a few lines 
from Mr. Brown, written without date or signa- 
ture; all are in fine spirits beyond the lines and 
Bragg 's fight with Rosecranz in Tennessee is 
considered a victory to our side in the Confed- 
eracy, though here the Yankees dole it out to us 
in the papers as a defeat. "An order of Banks* to- 
day enjoins on all of us a most respectful treat- 
ment of Federal soldiers ; parents are to be held 
responsible for the behavior of the children. I 
had no idea rulers could descend to such trifles, 
for my part I consider it beneath me to treat 
anyone with rudeness, least of all would I treat 
with indignity these wretched privates who have 
been induced to leave their homes by thousands 
of pretenses, and are uncomfortable and miser- 
able enough without our jeers.' They all have a 
serious, heavy-hearted aspect; men fighting for 
home and fireside feel differently ; our Confeder- 
ate knights have at least this consolation to sup- 
port them under all their trials. The wind blew a 
perfect hurricane all day ; I thought of the poor 
soldiers at sea. Spent the evening at Mrs. Dam- 



80 JOUENAL OF JULIA LE GRAND 

eron's; got an old music book containing many 
songs which are among my first recollections, 
when my father's guitar and his melodious voice 
seemed to me the finest music. As I recalled one 
by one the friends whose voices are forever stilled, 
who used to sing those songs, I felt a pang like 
that of a new parting for each and all ; my heart 
would cry out, ^'What is life after allT' 

An order to-day tempting planters to bring 
down their produce. The earnest desire to open 
the river is made known by other means than 
those used at Port Hudson and Vicksburg. These 
places both hold out, though it is represented in 
Northern papers that both have fallen. This is a 
deliberate falsehood gotten up to prevent recog- 
nition. By the fall of either we would lose the 
supplies from Red River and Texas, upon which 
a large portion of our people depend, and by the 
seizure of the railroad which would follow, the 
Confederacy would be cut in half. The fleet has 
all left Vicksburg, being threatened from above. 
A large force is drilling here daily for an attack 
on Port Hudson. We hear that our people are 
killing the enemy rapidly in various portions of 
Louisiana, where they have been burning houses, 
stealing negroes and all other property, and com- 
mitting frightful depredations. We Confederates 
of New Orleans consider that Louisiana has been 
neglected by our Government; Mississippi gets 




MOLLIE EMANUEL 



Married the Rev. John E. Wheeler ; President Jefferson Davis was 

one of the guests at her wedding. Present residence 

at Roslyn, Baltimore County, Maryland 



JOURNAL OF JULIA LE GRAND 81 

the credit of holding out better against the foe, but 
as soon as she was threatened the Government 
made haste to help her with tried soldiers from all 
parts of the Confederacy. Louisiana and Ken- 
tucky bled in defense of Vicksburg, coward 
^'New Orleans ^^ is the cry. There were no troops 
left to defend New Orleans, though such an im- 
portant point. We had no soldiers except the 
^ ' Confederate Guard, ^ ' a sort of holiday regiment 
composed of the well-to-do old gentlemen of the 
city, who were anxious to show their patriotism 
on the parade ground, but who never expected to 
fight. The pomp and circumstance they kept up 
finely. They had beautiful tents, too, on thei"!: 
camping-out excursions, to which they trans- 
ported comfortable bedsteads, sundry boxes and 
demijohns. I have no doubt that the idea of being 
of immense service to a grateful country, gave 
quite a flavor to their expensive wines ; these were 
our defenders, and General Lovell was given to 
feasting with them. They were called his pets. 
When the forts fell the most valiant of these gen- 
tlemen returned with General Lovell to Camp 
Moore, and others, using much discretion, made 
haste to pack away their epaulettes and became 
the most unassuming of citizens on a moment ^s 
notice. We had no tried men at the forts. Con- 
gress was appealed to again and again, but the 
President and House seemed to keep up a hard- 



82 JOUENAL OF JULIA LE GRAND 



ened blindness as to its condition. I am told that 
Davis said that two guns could defend New Or- 
leans, and that Benjamin laughingly said that 
**Timbuctoo would be attacked as soon/' Well, 
well, here am I writing, nearly a year after 
its fall, running out to look at Yankee cavalry 
instead of the Confederate Guards, while, more 
serious matter still, the poor, surprised planta- 
tions are defended by hastily gotten up guerrilla 
bands. There is a fight at Baton Rouge, in Yan- 
kee possession, nearly every night; no Yankee 
boat dares go beyond a certain distance up the 
river. The guerrillas, not infrequently, fire on 
them and sometimes capture or burn them. To 
what a dreadful condition is our dear country re- 
duced — our country which once lay in happy 
security. 

Every wile is used to obtain cotton ; when it can 
be seized, it is, of course. Men are going round 
constantly buying even the smallest parcels of this 
now precious commodity — mattresses and small 
samples — offering fabulous prices for the same. 
On our old plantation, with what little reverence 
I regarded this beautiful staple ! Now it seems to 
represent so much that it appeals to my fancy 
almost like a matter of poetry. * * King Cotton de- 
throned must mount again.*' How the working 
world is suffering for his aid. A letter has re- 
cently arrived from Mrs. Roselius' sister, who is 



JOURNAL OF JULIA LE GRAND 83 

English and in England ; she dwells much on the 
suffering of the people near her ; she had had no 
idea that the world could contain such distress; 
she never saw anything like it in America, where 
she lived so long. The Government is allowing 
the starved operatives five cents per day. Food is 
as dear there as here, and I am sure that no Amer- 
ican, no negro slave, could support life on such a 
sum. Ah, if men would only grow wise enough to 
let the evils of other countries alone until they 
had remedied those near them ! ''The Greeks are 
at our door,'' said John Randolph once, when 
called on to contribute to their assistance. 

January 15th [1863]. It stormed all night. I 
lay awake and thought of the poor, poor soldiers. 
I thought, too, much of the fall of Ft. Donelson, 
where the flag of the Confederacy went down in 
storm and blood. How sadly I recall my feeling of 
horror the night an ''extra'' made known to us 
that tragic event I How much blood shed since! 
Lincoln calls the slaughter of Fredericksburg an 
accident — some new road to Richmond is to be 
proposed, his troops are not to go into winter 
quarters. This will keep our poor Southern boys 
also exposed, and now, even in this latitude, the 
cold wind is singing its melancholy song, both by 
night and day. God help them all, and the poor 
anxious women who are watching. 

Mrs. Blinks conversed with a gentleman who 



84 JOURNAL OF JULIA LE GRAND 

had spoken with four different ship owners at the 
North ; each had lost a vessel at nearly the same 
time, and each loser reported himself to have been 
robbed by the Alabama, Captain Semmes. He and 
others think that we have several privateers out; 
the Arrieto lately ran the blockade at Mobile. I 
have just read the captures of the Ariel by the 
Alabama, and the speech of Captain Semmes to 
the frightened crew. ^^We are gentlemen, not 
pirates,'' and ^^We gentlemen of the Alabama 
harm no one, ' ' are speeches which especially took 
my fancy. In answer to a voice which cried, * ^ You 
nearly sunk our ship just now with your shot,'' he 
said, ^^That is our duty; we war upon the sea." 
He is no pirate, he claims, but carries a Confeder- 
ate State's commission. He is a gallant fellow, 
and I am glad he comes from Maryland. These 
Southern soldiers often stir a vein of poetry in 
my heart which I had thought belonged exclu- 
sively to the knights of old. I remember when 
Bradley Johnson rode into Fredericktown, Mary- 
land, he cried out to the timid, ^ ' We come to harm 
no one; we are friends, we are not robbers, but 
Southern gentlemen. ' ' The Northern people have 
not shown their boasted civilization in the prog- 
ress of this war. Robbery, house-burning^ and 
every species of depredation has marked the 
course of the Northern armies. Our soldiers at 
least respect woman, but even in this town helpless 



JOURNAL OF JULIA LE GRAND 85 

females have been driven from their houses with- 
out their personal effects, and insulted in the 
grossest manner. I hear that our Louisiana boys 
often go into a fight with cries of *'New Orleans 
and Butler.'^ 

Negroes are starving in the streets, though the 
Federals have taxed all citizens here who have 
had anything to do with the war for the support of 
the poor. They boast of feeding our poor, but the 
city furnishes the means ; they do not contribute 
a penny themselves, but sell their provisions at the 
highest rate. Butler boasted to the last of having 
fed this starving city. 

January 16th [1863]. The Ogden and Harrison 
girls all in to-day from Greensville, looking rosy 
from the cold, and fat and cheerful in spite of 
blockades. They are brimful of the pride and 
glory and chivalry of ^^Rebeldom.^* Our South- 
ern heroes are fondly talked of by thousands of 
firesides from which they are shut out. I read an 
amusing letter written by an Englishman, one of 
the Alabama's men. Semme's Southern chivalry, 
it seems is sometimes put to the test — he spared 
the Tonawando from destruction because of the 
female passengers, though it well nigh broke his 
heart to part with so fine a vessel. Ah, never let 
it be said that Southerners injure women! All 
prisoners are treated well, this Englishman says, 
though many are not grateful for having their 



86 JOURNAL OF JULIA LE GRAND 

lives spared. The Englishman says he is * * taking 
both to the people, the ship, and the cause. ' ' 
■^ Mr. Payne ^s funeral took place to-day; died 
from brain affection brought on by trouble caused 
by this war. His sons are in the army, and he has 
left two young and pretty daughters. They have 
no mother and he was the fondest of fathers. The 
breaking up of the home is a solemn and awful 
thing to see. In after years we often realize how 
dear has been the common daily routine of the old 
home life. 

'A Yankee soldier remarked in the car to-day, 
* ' I wonder if these Southern girls can love as they 
hate! If they can, it would be well worth one^s 
trying to get one of them. ' ' Another, passing the 
gate, said to his companions, ^^I tell you these 
Southerners have real pluck ; if they were man to 
man with us they would whip us all to smash, but 
we have three to one, and that's the only way we'll 
whip them.'' Strange that they have so many 
men yet always complain when defeated that they 
were overwhelmed by numbers. I am told that 
there is a great speech of Valandingham out. How 
I admire this man, with his clear, keen, practical 
sense, imbued by a lofty sentiment ; his rectitude, 
his strength, his sagacity to see the right, and his 
courage to speak it, in a time so corrupt that there 
is danger in so speaking. He can never become 
the mere man of wood that so many are. His 



JOURNAL OF JULIA LE GRAND 87 

noble protests against this cruel war have given 
positive comfort to me ; it is so bitter to believe 
humanity corrupt. The number of his admirers 
in his own country proves that the Northern peo- 
ple are not all filled with spite and hatred of us, 
as so many believe. I love my own land as well 
as any man or woman that it nourishes! How 
gladly would I submit to sacrifices for her benefit 
or ennobling! How proudly would I shed my 
blood in her defence if I could, but my heart has 
yet to learn to take pleasure in the idea of evil 
in other lands ! Love of country does not consist 
in hatred of other countries, or patriotism in be- 
lieving that ours is free of faults; an honest 
desire to rectify the faults of one^s own country 
should stir the heart of each man and woman in 
it. This is a greater safeguard than boasting of 
our excellences. The statesman, or author, who 
tells us the truth is a greater benefactor than he 
who flatters our pride. No fear, with our English 
blood, of our becoming too humble-minded. 

There is a war of parties expected at the North ; 
I wish for it if it can result in letting the South 
pass in peace, but this great end gained, I cannot 
contemplate without horror the idea of civil war 
and its desolations. *^They deserve it,'' say my 
friends, who are ready to shake me for what they 
call luke-warmness. How painful it is never to 
be comprehended; of two evils, both for myself 



88 JOURNAL OF JULIA LE GRAND 

and my enemy, I would choose the least. If the 
North can suffer enough from the reign of her 
bloody radicals to bring back her good sense and 
humanity, I will be glad enough for her to suffer ; 
further than this I wish her no ill ; my prayer is 
ever that she may repent and go in peace. They 
have treated us cruelly and I wish companionship, 
fellowship and community of interest, never any 
more. Just heard from a gentleman from the 
North, that there is no hope of peace from that 
quarter. The radicals, knowing that they have 
the reins of Government in their own hands, are 
determined to press the war and overwhelm us 
before the Democrats can come into power. There 
is no hope that Lincoln will extend the time of 
Congress, and therefore the Democrats must sit 
in silent patience. These dreadful radicals are 
the jacobins of America and their cry is like the 
old one, ^^More blood!'' The Democrats treat 
them, I hear, with the greatest contempt socially 
and politically. We have been hoping so for 
peace; my God, can we endure another year of 
war! Mrs. Roselius has just told us of some of 
the sufferings of Pierre Soule in Fort Lafayette ; 
he was an intimate acquaintance of hers and she 
has learned much concerning him. A friend of 
Soule 's who knew how comfortably he had lived 
in New Orleans, got permission from the Govern- 
ment at Washington to send him little luxuries 



JOURNAL OF JULIA LE GRAND 89 

in prison. These she carried to him daily with 
her own hands, trusting none except the one to 
whom her little offerings were necessarily con- 
signed — the jailer himself. What was her sur- 
prise after Mr. Soule's release to hear that he had 
never received one of the articles which the jailer 
had made so many kind promises to deliver. Mr. 
Denman rode in the car in New York with an old 
woman who publicly cursed the secessionists and 
wished them all sorts of horrors ; one of her sons 
they had killed outright, she said, and another to 
whom she was hastening had been wounded. 
*^Were they drafted men, or did they enlist T^ 
asked Mr. Denman. ^^They enlisted." ^**Ah, 
well, they must have expected and been prepared 
for the consequences of war. They went to 
invade the South ; their country was not invaded. ' ' 
January 17th [1863]. Company all day. Mrs. 
Roselius and a sweet little girl, who came to let us 
know they had a letter from Henny Davenport. 
She and her mother had a stormy passage across 
the water ; had put in at Cork, but were now safe 
with friends at Kingston. Henny sends word 
that she likes Europe, but New Orleans better. 
She longs to see the Confederate uniform. Mrs. 
Davenport had a private interview a few days 
before she left for Europe with two gentlemen — 
friends of her husband. During this interview 
she agreed to accept from Mr. Wringlet, one of 



90 JOURNAL OF JULIA 'LE GRAND 

the gentlemen, a certain amount of household 
silver, in payment of a debt, he being at this crisis 
unable to give money, though worth millions. 
She thought, and so did the gentleman, that the 
interview was strictly private; their astonish- 
ment was therefore profound when General 
Butler sent for all three and opened up the silver 
subject. Mrs. Davenport, though angry enough, 
trotted along with Butler's orderly. She found 
his Lordship walking the floor in his usual the- 
atrical manner. The two gentlemen were sum- 
moned and accused, in brutal language, of swin- 
dling. * * Do you know that these men have cheated 

your' he said to Mrs. D . *^How did this 

happen?'' he said, turning to Mr. . ^^Mind 

how you lie to me." ^^You do not awe me by 
threats or such language, General Butler," re- 
turned Mr. ; ^ ^ I lie to no man. ' ' The precious 

image of brutal Judge Jeffries now stamped his 
foot and made his favorite threat — Fort Jackson. 
Mrs. D , trembling, said she had made a previ- 
ous contract with these gentlemen and by it she 
was determined to abide. After more threats and 
much sifting he ordered the gentlemen to prison 

and Mrs. D to leave his presence. The silver 

had been conveyed to the vessel upon which Mrs. 

D was to sail. Butler had the hatchways 

broken and the silver delivered over to his tender 
and honest mercies. The gentlemen were ordered 



JOURNAL OF JULIA LE GRAND 91 

to raise a certain sum of money by such a time; 
one of them was bought off by one of his nieces. 
The next day the orderly was sent again for Mrs. 

D , and through a broiling sun she had again 

to follow him. This time she was so angry she 
forgot to be afraid. ^^Here is some money for 
you," said Butler to her, pointing to $500.00, ^4n 
return for the debt out of which those men cheated 
you." *'I will not take it," she said firmly; ^^I 
abide by my bargain." ^^You won't, won't you? 
Here have I been to the trouble to do you justice 
and you don't choose to accept of it ; they tell me 
you are going to Europe; how well you would 
look now to go among your friends there with a 
bit of silver marked in one name and another bit 
in another. You are not so young, I think, that 
you don't know something of business. When 
are you going to be off?" ^ * On Monday, sir. " *^I 
shall send you sooner." **I shall go when I am 
ready, sir," very firmly. **You shall go tomor- 
row," stamping. ^*I shall go when I am ready, 
sir," more firmly still. ^^I wish none of your 
impudence ; you have a very long tongue of your 
own. " ^ ^ Yes, sir, I have, but I only use it, as now, 
when I have occasion." **I wish none of your 
impudence. Orderly, show that woman out, ' ' and 
so ended the matter. The lady, being born a Brit- 
ish subject, though long a resident here, hopes to 
get the silver. The matter rests with Mr. Coppel, 



92 JOURNAL OF JULIA LE GRAND 

the British-acting Consul here. Butler does as 
he pleases with the Consuls here and as he is a 
notorious thief, my private opinion is that her 
silver may be put down in the family account 
book, but it should not be counted in the family 
exchequer. 

Mrs. Montgomery and the Judge and Mrs. 
Wells spent an evening with us. The Judge 
says we'll have peace before spring, and though 
he is considered an oracle, I feel inclined to doubt 
him this time. Mrs. Montgomery read in an 
^^ extra'' that her nephew was wounded at the late 
battle of Murfreesboro, and was sad in conse- 
quence. Mrs. Wells has not heard from her sweet 
daughters since December 4th. They left Vicks- 
burg on account of the late attack there both by 
boat and land. They are still near enough to 
hear the cannon roar — I wish I was. The girls, 
Mattie and Sarah, had had their tea and other 
delicacies stolen. They had procured passes for 
them with so much trouble, too. Mrs. Wells says 
that she is glad of it, as they were always laugh- 
ing at her locking-up system; that has been the 
rock upon which our household economies have 
split. It is so pleasant to trust; so convenient 
to say, *^0h, nobody will trouble it." 

January 19th [1863]. Mary Waugh spent the 
evening; talked about ghosts and goblins until 
Jake, the little darky, was afraid to go to bed. 



JOURNAL OF JULIA LE GRAND 93 

Mrs. Norton said '* nonsense" and **how can peo- 
ple be so silly?" to each veracious tale unfolded, 
but presently fell to telling the most wonderful 
spiritual visitation that I ever heard of, which had 
come under her own experience. She also quoted 
the spiritual accidents which happened in John 
Wesley's family — people whom she could not 
doubt, being a fervent Methodist. These are the 
only ghosts she believes in ; she says all the others 
are ^4ies and nonsense." 

January 20th [1863]. Wrote letters to-day to 
Claude and Mrs. Chilton by persons going out. 
My heart felt so like breaking to feel so far off 
from all, that I was forced to relieve it by crying 
before I could go on. 

Mr. Hill has just stopped in. He says that the 
Yankees will not hold this city much longer. Al- 
though I have heard this so often, it gives me a 
gleam of comfort every time I hear it. Oh, to 
break our prison bonds here, to be able to go 
once more where and when we pleased, to send 
comfort to those who are sick away from us and 
to be able to write a letter without thinking that 
some ruffian with epaulettes may read it, and per- 
haps send an orderly for us for not making it 
respectful enough to our jailers. Just had an 
offer for Greenville place ; don 't know yet how it 
will turn out. Mr. Randolph called with fresh 
negotiations for the Greenville place. He advises 



94 JOURNAL OF JULIA LE GRAND 

us not to sell, as all property has been depreciated 
by the war and that in a few years a house like 
ours with three acres attached, lying on the Car- 
rollton railroad, will be very valuable. He told 
us much war news. Banks has gone to Baton 
Rouge, it is said, to quell a mutiny among the 
soldiers. They say openly here that they do not 
want to fight us and they will seize the first oppor- 
tunity to be paroled by being made prisoners. 
Others again hate us, and preach openly to the 
negroes to arise and kill us. Why they have done 
nothing except rob and steal, is a wonder. If they 
were not negroes we would have had another 
bloody revolution among us, but the African must 
shed several skins and pass through various 
stages before his red tide can mount at the words, 
*'Give me liberty or give me death.*' Almost 
daily encounters pass between white men and 
black, and the white man is always punished. 
Colonel French, however, has issued an order that 
no negro shall go out at night without a pass from 
his master ; many arrests have been made ; even 
the Yankee police hate them, and have been 
treated so badly by them that they are glad to rid 
the streets of them. A white policeman was beaten 
to death by negro soldiers in United States uni- 
form — no punishment for the soldiers. 

January 21st [1863]. The registered enemies 
went out to-day by Government permission. No 



JOURNAL OF JULIA LE GRAND 95 

man whose age subjects him to the conscription 
law in the Confederacy was allowed to go. 
Women went without their husbands, hoping that 
afterwards they might be able to run the block- 
ade ; they may die in this attempt ; dread time of 
anxiety. About three hundred went out, some 
sick and feeble had to be carried on board the 
small steamer. Clarke, more generous than 
Butler, allowed a few provisions to be taken. 
Mrs. Ogden has gone to join her husband, a major 
at Vicksburg. Her mother had to be carried — 
she may die on the way, for the United States 
steamer only conducts them to the Confederate 
lines, and transportation thence may be difficult 
and fatiguing. The poor lady, however, wants to 
see her son, who has been in the Confederate 
army long separated from her. One old lady dis- 
played the Confederate flag in her bosom, saying 
that she was going out to die under the bars and 
stars. I hope further opportunity will be granted 
to the enemies to go out, as Ginnie and myself are 
anxious to go as soon as we can. There is some 
fear expressed here by the enemies lest their 
friends outside may take them for Unionists, be- 
cause they do not go now. A Mrs. Brown of this 
city, by much imploring, received permission from 
Clarke, the provost marshal, for her husband to 
accompany her. Clarke, it is said, is a really kind 
person — we are sorry that he is soon to leave his 



96 JOUENAL OF JULIA LE GRAND 

office, for kind Federals are not indeed as plenty 
as blackberries. The city papers here report 
the most dreadful depredations of the Federals 
under Sherman at Prior's Point on the Missis- 
sippi river. Our old friends in Milliken's Bend 
have had an opportunity to look at desolation by 
the side of their own blazing homes. It makes 
me miserable that men can do such deeds, miser- 
able to think of the suffering they entail — more 
miserable to know that in thousands of hearts each 
day a hate is gathering volume and intensity, 
which will live, actuate and work like a living 
principle. Hatred and malice, how happy would 
I be to know you were banished from the world 
forever ! I mourn over evil deeds because I real- 
ize so fully the doctrine of cause and effect ; each 
one lives and acts as a new cause to other effects. 
The evil doer strengthens the bad principle within 
him ; he starts it into life in another ; these others 
act upon the new sense within, and so make new 
landmarks in their moral natures, which lead on 
to other evil. Children inherit what has grown 
into propensities in their progenitors, and so the 
^ave — the blessed wave of civilization is forever 
borne back. Progress seems the universal law. 
I have believed so, hoped so, but we have leaped 
back, as it seems now, thousands of dark and 
hopeless years. 

Our old friends, the Morancies, the Mahews, the 



JOURNAL OP JULIA LE GRAND 97 

Lowrys and Jacksons, of Milliken's Bend, can 
scarcely help hating their desolators; the young 
and vigorous will act upon this hate — it will live 
and taint the moral mind through generations to 
come. I have a profound hatred of vice, but I love 
poor humanity. I feel almost like a citizen of the 
world, I am so sorry for all who suffer. Cruelty 
is one principle of the universe which I can never 
comprehend. That man should inherit principles 
of the mind, and that personal experience should 
give them larger growth and greater force, I can 
comprehend, but whence comes the germ of evil? 
I speculate, I ponder and feel miserable — longing 
to help all men — those who are obeying the 
promptings of bad natures, as well as those who 
suffer from their afflictions, yet feeling the in- 
ability to help myself. Why, I wonder, is suffer- 
ing the order of creation 1 All violation of natural 
law creates confusion and therefore suffering — 
the fire will burn, the water will drown — we must 
obey the immutable laws of nature, or suffer. So 
with the laws of the spirit, I think — we may sin 
often through ignorance. Through the long gen- 
erations ignorance has transgressed, and trans- 
gression has built up systems, creeds and actions, 
with their long trains of consequences — desolated 
and overthrown man's moral nature. Will there 
come a blessed time when man will be governed by 
love of virtue, rather than fear of punishment? 



98 JOURNAL OF JULIA LE GRAND 

Then only can there reign the beauty of holiness. 
I long for the time when there will be no suffering 
to tear one 's heart, no strife to shock one 's sensi- 
bilities, and no ignorance of the wants of the 
spirit, for wants it has which the world cannot 
satisfy. 

Mrs. Waugh came in this evening; had a 
long talk about spiritualism. It is comforting 
to meet with one who trusts and fears as she does. 
There is nothing which she touches with her 
hands more real and palpable to her than the 
spirits which surround her. She is a woman 
"well taught in the sciences ' ' ; she has a profound 
sagacity, is thoroughly practical, a good linguist, 
a good work woman when necessity requires it, 
a good neighbor, a good wife and mother ; she is 
thoroughly truthful, yet spiritualism is the one 
comfort of her life. She converses upon the sub- 
ject with an ease which familiarity alone can give, 
and I must confess her beautiful abstractions 
move me. My heart leaps up to catch a ray from 
the light which she says is coming. I feel some- 
times almost persuaded that we are on the eve of 
some great change which will affect men both 
physically and spiritually. I have long held a 
notion of my own about electricity — it is the spirit, 
the soul of the world. I find myself looking, long- 
ing, waiting for man's profounder acquaintance 
with it. He knows nothing of it yet, its power or 



JOUENAL OF JULIA LE GRAND 99 

capacity. When my undefined hopes in their fu- 
ture revelations flag, I think of the telegraph. 
One by one the mysteries of creation are un- 
folded and man accepts the benefits with which 
science enriches him, as matters of course — man- 
kind at large, I mean. Familiarity disarms, awes 
and, it seems, silences thought, but to lonely- 
hearted people who have little personal hope, but 
all for the ages, the great revelations of science 
are but steps on the pathway of progress — links 
in the chain which binds us to the future as well 
as to the past. Science will save this world — nor 
do I mean to be irreverent when I speak. The 
law of love of Christ is perfection, but man's 
physical being must be benefited before Christ's 
spirit can dwell with him. Science is God's own 
minister. Chemistry, Geometry, Astronomy, how 
I hope and trust in them for they are but the 
names we have given to the steps of the compre- 
hension of the thoughts of God. Mrs. Waugh 
speaks of a new discovery shortly to be made in 
electricity ; I find myself hoping for it, though it 
is a prediction spiritually uttered. 

To-day tried to do up my collars and other 
fineries — failed and felt anything but spiritual- 
minded. I got angry with my irons which would 
smut my muslins, and then got angry with myself 
for having been angry — finally divided the blame, 
giving a part to Julie Ann for running away and 



100 JOURNAL OF JULIA LE GRAND 

leaving me to do her work, and by her thefts, with 
less money wherewithal to procure others to do 
for me. If Julie's condition was bettered, if she 
had been made a higher being by the sort of free- 
dom she has chosen, I could not find it in my con- 
science to regret her absence ; but I hear of her, 
she is a degraded creature, living a vicious life, 
and we tried so hard to make her good and hon- 
est. I once was as great an abolitionist as any 
in the North — that was when my unthinking fancy 
placed black and white upon the same plane. My 
sympathies blinded me, and race and character 
were undisturbed mysteries to me. But my ex- 
perience with negroes has altered my way of 
thinking and reasoning. As an earnest of sin- 
cerity given even to my own mind, it was when we 
owned them in numbers that I thought they ought 
to be free, and now that we have none, I think they 
are not fit for freedom. No one unacquainted with 
negro character can form an idea of its deficien- 
cies as well as its overpluses, if I may so express 
myself; it is the only race which labor does not 
degrade. I do not mean that there is degradation 
in labor, but we all know that white men and 
women, whose minds are fettered with one con- 
stant round of petty pursuits, are very different 
from their brothers and sisters who are better 
served by fortune. White men, left free from 
degrading cares, generally struggle up to some- 



JOURNAL OF JULIA LE GRAND 101 

thing higher — not so the black man. They have 
no cares but physical ones and will not have for 
generations to come, if ever. The free black man 
is scarcely a higher animal, and not near so inno- 
cent as the unbridled horse. He has sensation, 
but his sensibility is not well awakened; he does 
not love or respect the social ties. Never yet have 
I met with one instance to prove the contrary. 
His wild instincts are yet moving his coarse blood ; 
he is servile if mastered, and brutal if licensed; 
he can never be taught the wholesome economy 
which pride of character supports in a white man ; 
he can not, either by force or persuasion, be im- 
bued with a reverence for truth. What place is 
there in the scale of humanity but one of subjec- 
tion for such a race? I watch negroes narrowly 
in country and town experiences, yet never have I 
met with one instance which encouraged me to 
think differently. 

I doubt not but that in the far generations they 
will hold, and justly, a better, higher place. When 
they are fit for it, the white man will not withhold 
it. The inventions of science will make his labor 
less needed, and the example and influence of the 
white race, aided by the wholesome restraints of 
savage passions, will eventually make him a new 
being. Slavery indeed can not be considered a 
good school for the white man, but it should be 
remembered by the fanatic that we found these 



102 JOUENAL OF JULIA LE GRAND 

people mere animals, and that physically and 
mentally our slaves are superior to their African 
progenitors. The white race is distorted by labor ; 
hair, features, complexion and shape — all tell the 
tale of hardship and labor. Not so with the negro ; 
they live so easily, generally speaking, so com- 
fortably — these creatures whom fanatics are pity- 
ing, neglectful of the poor at their doors, and for 
whose possible benefit it is pretended that Federal 
soldiers are sent to die. America seems perishing 
of madness. 

Saturday. Went to Sydney Dameron's little 
birth-night party; played a little for the young 
folks to dance. Met Mrs. Richardson, who has 
founded an asylum for old women, supported by 
contributions from both friends and enemy. The 
Federals have seized the city finances, also much 
private finances, and as they pretend to feed the 

poor, Mrs. R demanded bread of Colonel 

Deming with a sweet smile and a pretty play of 
words, **You are said to be the best-bred man 
in the city, Colonel Deming, and therefore I come 
to you for bread.'' Needless to say she got her 
bread. 

Mrs. Richardson was very anxious that Ginnie 
or I should write a few complimentary and re- 
gretful remarks to be published in the Picayune; 
subject, **The retirement of Colonel Deming from 
service." I have never met the gallant Federal 



JOURNAL OF JULIA LE GRAND 103 

and have heard nothing which could incline me to 
take such a step, especially as she wished the re- 
marks made in the name of the ladies of New 

Orleans. Mrs. R made him a perfect hero, 

and to quiet my objections, said she thought that 
our rulers here who had behaved like gentlemen 
should be complimented publicly, as a sort of dis- 
tinction to them, and an acknowledgment on our 
part that we can appreciate kind treatment. 
Colonel Deming may be a hero ; his resignation, I 
confess, speaks well for him, if he goes back to 

become a peace advocate, as Mrs. R says, but 

I thought it better for Mrs. R herself to take 

the responsibility of complimenting him. I told 
her that personal acquaintance was a great spur 
and that she could be much more eloquent than I 
on the subject. Mrs. Norton was anxious that we 

should accept Mrs. R 's proposal, though she 

hates the Federals, one and all, as bad as we do. 
She seemed to think it conferred, or would con- 
fer, some sort of distinction upon us, and told me 
I was too squeamish, when I said that I could not 
accept another's interpretation of a man; indeed 
this wise lady seems to have little discrimination. 
She was eloquent in praise of Governor Shepley 
but a little while since, and as I have had several 
interviews with this gentleman, I would prefer to 
have some one else dissect character for me. The 
Ogden girls have been in town often, begging us 



104 JOUENAL OF JULIA LE GRAND 

to visit them at Greenville, also Mr. and Mrs. 
Randolph ; so we have decided to go out and spend 
a week. 

January 28th [1863]. Set off on the car which 
runs by Mrs. Norton's door; met Mary Ogden on 
the car. Two ' ' Feds ' ' seemed much interested in 
our talk. They heard no favorable ideas of them- 
selves, though nothing rude, of course. One looked 
as if he might have been a schoolmaster at home. 
These privates, when they are Americans, have a 
sad and hopeless look, as if their hearts were 
aching for home, as I have no doubt they are. The 
Irish and Germans look very different, I think; 
they look as if they had never had any home. I 
hear from all quarters that these men do long for 
home ; they have serious ideas now that this war 
is not a good one, and not made for the Union 
either, but merely to carry out party schemes of 
party men. There is scarcely a day that I do not 
hear of instances of Federal soldiers giving proof 
that they are '^rebels'' at heart. Four cannon 
were spiked at Annunciation Square not long ago ; 
the ringleaders were stretched out with cannon 
balls attached both to arms and feet. One poor 
fellow revealed in a drunken fit that he was a 
*^ rebel,'' a Davis man; he, too, was stretched out 
in this cruel way, and was kept in this condition 
so long without food, and exposed to such weather, 
that he died. The ladies living near Annunciation 



JOURNAL OF JULIA LE GRAND 105 

Square who could see from their windows what 
was going on, were so miserable that for four 
days and nights they could not sleep; they sent 
prayers and entreaties for the sufferers, but to 
no purpose. I suppose it is because the mind 
cannot realize suffering without the help of sight, 
that our sisters of the North are using every wile 
to pour down upon us their revengeful hordes, 
while our women are begging that individuals 
from those hordes may be spared such cruelty. 
The Federal army is said to be much demoralized 
here. This demoralization is what I call a return 
to reason. 
Met Mr. Randolph and Judge Scott as we 

got off the car. Mr. R looked so glad 

to see us, but the Judge, who is a misanthrope 
and woman-hater, looked sour enough at us. He 
is an uncle of the Ogden girls and has been stay- 
ing at Judge 's house since his sons went 

to the war. Very cold ; Greenville ^s quiet beauty 
quite destroyed, being cut up by Yankee wagons 
and having thousands of Yankee soldiers en- 
camped about her green lawns. I cannot describe 
my feelings when looking upon these tents, hear- 
ing the drums and bands of music, and catching 
the sound of voices of men whose avowed purpose 
is to conquer and desolate our country. They are 
'^rebels" in heart, thousands of them; we have 
daily proofs of this, yet they are organized and 



106 JOURNAL OF JULIA TLE GRAND 

drilled and will fight us, too, when ordered. We 
are in daily expectation of the attack at Vicks- 
burg and Port Hudson. We found the girls all 
well and got a real hearty, delightful welcome 
from them, and a warm and kindly one from the 
Judge. We found beautiful wood fires all over 
the house. Coal is high and scarce, and the Judge 
is clearing a piece of land that he may plant it in 
oranges when the Yankees leave. The beautiful 
oaks and pecans ! I feel sorry to see them going. 
We see the railroad from the windows and bal- 
cony, constantly spotted with Yankee soldiers and 
runaway contrabands in Yankee service. Went 
in the afternoon to see the Randolphs, who live 
just across the street in our house. It seems so 
strange to be visiting Greenville, and looking 
across the way to the garden and house, once a 
daily and familiar sight. We stayed to tea with 
Mrs. Randolph; found there her sister-in-law. 
We had a hearty welcome here, too, and as Lizzie 
and Mary were with us we had quite a circle of 
friends. During the evening I was struck with 
the force of the old saying that ^^appearances are 
often deceptive ' ' : We had been seated but half an 
hour when a neighbor of Mr. Randolph's came in. 
He looked so plain and ordinary that I gave a sort 
of inward groan at the probability of his taking 
his seat near me and prolonging his visit. He had 
scarcely seated himself before he said something 



JOURNAL OF JULIA LE GRAND 107 

witty, and in a few moments he had the whole 
talk to himself and we were either convulsed with 
laughter or moved with strange sympathies for 
the rest of the evening. He spouted plays, acted 
them, sang operas and sweet old ballads in end- 
less succession and managed to take his tea and 
cake standing on the hearth while carrying on a 
dialogue, his own tongue doing service for two. 
I have not laughed so much since the war began. 
Mr. Haines is the gentleman's name — middle-aged 
and with a wife and grown-up children. His face 
in repose is both heavy and sad-looking. Mr. 
Randolph told us that he was in the car one day 
when this Mr. Haines had been indulging in some 
rather piquant secession talk, not knowing that a 
Federal was in company — they make a business 
of traveling in citizens' clothes, acting as spies— 
at least they did while Butler was here. Mr. 
Haines was suddenly arrested in his talk by a cry 
of "I forbid you to speak in that way; stop in- 
stantly.'' It was considered as much as his life, 
or rather liberty, was worth to make answer to 
this prohibition, and Mr. Haines's friends felt 
rather anxious upon his turning to the Federal 
and calmly demanding of him, ^^What do you 
mean?" ''I mean," said the Federal, ''to pre- 
vent your talking against the government of the 

United States; I arrest you, sir." Mr. H 

rose deliberately, and doubling up his right hand, 



108, JOUENAL OF JULIA LE GEAND 

said coolly, '* Touch me at your peril; lay but a 
hand upon me and I'll throttle you until you can't 
speak.'' Having delivered himself in this style, 
he sat down and the Federal wisely did the same 
thing, offering not another word. Such stuff are 
these Butler minions made of. 

Mr. Haines's garden fence was all carried off 
by the Massachusetts regiment during his absence 
from home; his wife talked to the soldiers in 
vain, imploring that her fruits and flowers should 
not thus be turned out on the common at a mo- 
ment's notice. Mr. H , upon hearing this, pro- 
ceeded at once to camp, inquiring for each officer, 
in succession, of the Massachusetts regiment. He 
borrowed a sword of an orderly, or some such per- 
sonage, so that the fence could be made a personal 
matter with the officer who had ordered its de- 
struction. The officers were all absent, or so re- 
ported, and strange to say, are always absent 
when Mr. Haines calls. ^*It remained for the 
Massachusetts regiment to perform such a petty 

piece of villainy," said Mr. H to the soldier 

on guard. ^^ Military necessity," answered the 
guard. ^ ^ You might have had the military polite- 
ness to have told me you wanted it ; I would have 
bought you wood rather than had my fence de- 
stroyed. I intend to follow this matter up. I will 
find the officer guilty of the order and get satis- 
faction from him, or carry the matter to Banks. 



JOUENAL OF JULIA LE GRAND 109 

He has promised to protect ns who are quiet, non- 
fighting men, and he shall protect me or give me a 
passport into a government that will. * ^ A guard 
was sent forthwith to protect Mr. Haines's gar- 
den. Night and day, in sun and rain, the poor 
Federal privates stand to keep watch, thus doing 
picket service in real earnest. We came home 
from Mr. Randolph 's and found the two Judges in 
the parlor, reviewed our evening for their benefit, 
and parted for the night. We had our tea after 
we had undressed, around a bright wood fire ; the 
girls sat with us and took their tea in our room. 
I told them how glad I was to see the dear blaze ; 
it was a touch of the country and a gleam from 
the dear old times. Didn't sleep one wink all 
night. The Judge said ^^tea at bed-time,'' but 
I knew better ; I knew of the thousand thoughts 
that flitted through my brain. The girls met us 
with kisses of welcome in the morning. Ginnie 
was not allowed to get up, though breakfast was 
late. The Judge sent us word that this was 
liberty hall and that we could sleep when we 
liked and breakfast when we liked; that he had 
little to offer us these war times but a welcome 
and a carte blanche to do as we pleased. Got up 
near dinner time; still no sleep. Mary, who is 
housekeeper this week, had a nice warm breakfast 
for us, and I felt ashamed of the trouble we had 
given. There were fourteen servants about the 



110 JOUENAL OF JULIA LE GRAND 

house, almost idle, of course, there being nothing 
for them to do since the Federals came. They 
stay with their master, the kindest and most in- 
dulgent in the world, merely to be supported — 
giving out speeches from time to time, which 
prove to my mind, at least, that they will leave 
him when it suits them. Marcia and Charlotte, 
though, I believe, are really attached to their 
master and his children. The Judge got a letter 
from his son Billy from Fredericksburg, the first 
since last summer. He is in Claude's old regi- 
ment, the 7th Louisiana Crescent. This family 
seem to love each other very dearly ; the devotion 
of the girls to their father and brother is very 
touching, I think, and it does my heart good to 
see it. To their uncle Walter, the misanthropic 
Judge, they are kind and tender; he seems at 
least attached to this much of womankind, his 
nieces. 

AVe took a walk with the Randolphs and 
Harrisons to the river; got our feet wet, being 
silly enough to go in thin shoes. I took cold and 
Ginnie was made quite sick. Had invitation to 
dine with the Harrisons; much debating among 
the girls whether or not they should go with us, 
a coolness having grown up between these two 
pleasant households, owing entirely to the present 
war. The Harrisons are lately from Kentucln^ 
and as they can not look upon Louisiana as their 



JOURNAL OF JULIA LE GRAND 111 

home just yet, and as Kentucky's action has been 
much censured during this war, a great deal has 
been taken unkindly on both sides, which has 
never been meant by either. These girls were 
intimate before the war, and would be again, if 
these sympathetic strings were not constantly 
jarred upon by the exciting topics of the day. It 
is hard to keep the equilibrium either of mind or 
nerve nowadays, such opposite and warm opin- 
ions are held and discussed. We, as usual, have 
tried to play peace-makers; people of this sort 
are hardly ever done justice to — both sides find 
fault, but in this case I think both families appre- 
ciate our intentions. Jule could not be induced 
to go with us; Ella had insulted her, she says. 
Jule is young and so is Ella, and so matters must 
rest until both grow older. Mary, too, declined to 
go — she is literal and therefore not apt to fancy 
herself deceived in a matter of this sort. She is 
too kind-hearted ever to have wished to wound, 
and therefore feels sure that she has never done 
so, but then she feels so sincerely that she can not 
simulate old feelings when they have been in- 
jured or passed away. I saw she would not like 
to go, and so did not ask — at the same time I felt 
that a refusal in toto would look very pointed and 
probably make an everlasting breach. 

I didn 't think it wrong to advise Lizzie, who is 
gentler, less positive in her feelings than either 



112 JOURNAL OF JULIA LE GRAND 

lier elder or younger sister, to go with us. The 

girls all love Mrs. H . She is indeed the 

sweetest, gentlest and saddest of women. Mr. 
Harrison and the Judge brought news that six 
more States are reported out of the Union. Mat- 
ters have not proceeded so far, I think, but it is 
evident from the speeches made in the North at 
opposition meetings that some terrible judgment 
is in store for the wicked abolition Government. 
The North has broken her bonds at last. No more 
shall men be dragged to bondage without accusa- 
tion or trial, as in the two years past. I have 
waited with anxious longing for this reaction; I 
have always felt that the war was not carried on 
by the people at large. The abolitionists are the 
Jacobins of America. They have not shown any 
kindness to the poor negroes, either ; they die by 
hundreds from disease engendered by unaccus- 
tomed hardships and exposure, also starvation. 
The suburbs and odd places in and about this city 
are crowded with a class never seen until the Fed- 
erals came here — a class whose only support is 
theft and whose only occupation is strolling the 
streets, insulting white people, and living in the 
sun. This is really the negro idea of liberty. I 
speculate over the evils which I see and those 
which I fear, and often wish that I was some 
merry-hearted, careless girl who sees nothing. 





'91 


^^^^^H ^ 


^'\j^. m|Hg^^^^H 




^'^ \^^^Bi^^^^^^m 


^■i 








Hb 


^ie« ^H^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^H 



ELLIN NORTH MOALE 

First white child born in Baltimore 

Great-great aunt by marriage of Julia LeGrand 



III. 

Febkuary 3 — February 28, 1863. 

February 3rd [1863]. Eead in the back parlor 
at Judge Ogden's the last speech of Valanding- 
ham, to Ginnie and the girls; we were all pro- 
foundly affected. There is something in this 
man's eloquence which stirs the depths of my 
nature. This magnificent address, strong, argu- 
mentative, forcible and earnest, seemed to me the 
wail of a great and good spirit over a lost nation- 
ality and a dissevered country. To think of a 
people choosing Lincoln for a supreme ruler with 
a man like this among them. Witnessed a march 
of the Federals into the city ; some thousands. I 
never have seen so many men together before. 
Crowds have always awed and excited me, thrilled 
me with sensations strange and indefinable, but 
these soldiers — our professed enemies — moving 
with solemn countenances and measured tread, 
with starry banners floating and, what was once, 
our national music playing, filled me with a sort 
of excited melancholy never felt before. Images 
of the many fields wet with the blood of brothers, 
in which the stars and stripes and our own stars 
and bars had met in angry strife and floated in 
pride, then sunk in blood, mingled with thoughts 

113 



114 JOURNAL OF JULIA 'LE GRAND 

of all that these people had still to do. How many 
mothers are to be made desolate by this war. It 
seems to me to be very hard to be so very near 
soldiers and not be able to respond to their cheers 
or to shake the hand of even one, or to say, God 
speed you! These people have the old camping 
ground of our Confederate soldiers, then called 
^'Camp Lewis,'' now camp Weitzel, in compliment 
to that Dutch-American who commands them. 
Saw to-day that Magruder's camp of instruction 
is at Hampstead, in Texas, where sister lives; 
read several very romantic incidents of the attack 
at Galveston. Captain Wainwright's little son, 
only ten years old, fought over the body of his 
dead father. Two brothers met and one answering 
the cry of ^^ Yield or I kill you," said, ^^You had 
better look at me, Joe, before you fire. ' ' A gentle- 
man named Lea, who was of the boarding party, 
killed his own son ; his grief upon this discovery 
was terrible to witness. A Mr. Holland, too, of 
the boarding party, was met by Captain Wain- 
wright for the first time since he had entertained 
him as a friend in London. Such things forbid 
comment. Ah, cruel civil war ! On returning late, 
after spending the evening at the Randolphs, 
Judge Scott read an ' ' extra ' ' brought from town ; 
the blockade at Charleston is removed by a bold 
Confederate attack; the Mercidita and Quaker 
City sunk, not a Federal vessel in sight. Great re- 



JOURNAL OF JULIA LE GRAND 115 

joicing at Charleston; foreign consuls informed. 
Ah, peace, is it really coming in the — no, not the 
distance — she must be near. Charleston claims 
open port for sixty days. We laughed to-day at 
an officer's caper; Mrs. Harrison sent Ginnie 
some nice things for lunch ; an officer strolling on 
the railroad told the boy Andrew that he was 
there to inspect all covered dishes. After looking 
within and asking questions, he gave his royal 
permission to the proceeding. *^0h,'' said he, 
* * as it is for a sick lady, you may take it to her. ' ' 
Mrs. Norton sent Mary Jane out for us with a 
note, asking us to come back. The girls said she 
made our passport an excuse for getting us home 
again, as she is lonely. She sent because an order 
in the Yankee Delta made known to us that those 
** enemies'' who wished for passports and had 
registered, should come in person to receive them. 
Sent her word that we would come. 

Next morning Ginnie was sick, too sick to 
get up, so I rose early and wrote a few 
lines to Colonel Clarke, stating facts; also 
wrote a few to Mr. Randolph, claiming the 
fulfillment of a promise to us that he would 
serve us under all circumstances. He came over 
directly after breakfast to tell me how glad he 
was that we had called on him at last, and that 
he would deliver our note to some of our rulers 
and extort a passport if possible. I thanked him 



116 JOURNAL OF JULIA LE GRAND 

in earnest, for it is really something to ask. The 
Federal rulers here are less accessible than the 
most august of sovereigns, and even if one is ad- 
mitted they send him from one to another until 
his patience is worn out, each official seeming to 
emulate the last in rude behavior — with the single 
exception of Colonel Clarke, who has been dis- 
missed from office, having shown what the Yan- 
kees here term ^^secesh'* tendencies. He is a 
gentleman and Ginnie says a most sorrowful one. 
Before we went to Greenville, Mrs. Norton, Ginnie 
and Mrs. Dameron went to the city hall — found 
there a great crowd through which they had to 
wedge their way. A young official made his ap- 
pearance and after roughly demanding what their 
business was, was answered curtly by Mrs. 
Norton : ^ ^ I don H intend to tell you my business, ' ^ 
said she ; * ^ I will go to headquarters. ' ' She makes 
a point of always speaking in this way and cannot 
be persuaded that she gives them great advantage 
over her. *^Well, madam, ^' returned the young 
man, ^'I don't want to know your business, and if 
you can't tell it, just step back until others are 
served who can.'' Mrs. Dameron blushed and 
said, ^^Ah, why will Ma put herself in a position 
to be insulted?" Ginnie and she got out of the 
way as fast as possible, and Mrs. Norton was so 
innocent about it that she didn't know what they 
meant by feeling abashed. Colonel French sat 



JOUENAL OF JULIA LE GRAND 117 

with his feet in the air, answered almost rudely 
when spoken to, and gave them no satisfaction. 
Colonel Clarke, though out of office that very day 
and to be succeeded by a creature called Colonel 
Bowgen, did all he could toward granting their 
requests. Mrs. Norton and Ginnie got arrest 
papers for servants, also registered for passports. 
Colonel Bowgen watched Colonel Clarke sharply, 
fearing, Ginnie said, that he might do or promise 
something kind. ^ ' Colonel Clarke has a soft spot 
in his heart, ' ' he significantly remarked. For this 
soft spot he has been dismissed from office; he 
goes out to the verge of ^ ' rebeldom, ' ' however, 
with all exchanged prisoners and enemies when- 
ever they are sent, and is always so kind, so truly 
generous that many are attached to him. One 
lady who had smuggled a Confederate flag felt 
compunctious after receiving so much kindness, 
and brought it out to the Colonel. He had not 
permitted either their trunks or persons to be 
searched. She waved her little flag and said 
that she loved it and asked his permission to carry 
it over the lines ; * ^ Oh, yes,' ' said he, ^^ take it; I 
don 't think it will cause the death of any of us. ' ' 
The trip to the lines that time was a delightful 
one, both to the ladies and Colonel Clarke, and 
upon the arrival of the boat at Madisonville, two 
hundred Confederate soldiers marched down to 
meet the ladies. 



118 JOURNAL OF JULIA LE GRAND 

Oh ! snch a time ! such a joyful meeting ! Our 
soldiers went on board and had quite a ^^jollifica- 
tion/' it is said, and were kindly entertained by 
the Federal officers. This was as it should be, but 
things will never be conducted in that way again. 
The last time the enemies went out, Colonel 
Clarke went with them, indeed, but he could do 
nothing which he wished. On being appealed to 
by a lady, he said, ^^Ah, madam, there is a new 
ruler in Jerusalem." On this occasion the ladies' 
trunks were searched, also their persons, with 
two exceptions. A little contraband quinine was 
found and we were all glad to hear that one of the 
infamous women badly cut her hand whilst rip- 
ping up a lady's sleeve to look for it. Even babies 
were searched and left shivering in the cold with- 
out their clothes. Flannels were taken from all, 
and a little bag of flour which a very poor woman, 
who was going out to meet her husband, had taken 
to thicken her baby's milk, was cruelly thrown into 
water. Is it possible that we can ever take the 
Yankees by the hand again ! To me the very sight 
of them is disgusting after hearing of their 
enormities. 

Mr. Randolph got our passports after waiting 
hours ; he was treated roughly at first, but upon 
speaking firmly and politely, they changed tone. 
He was even told to come back again if he needed 
more trunks than those allowed us. In the pass- 



JOUENAL OF JULIA LE GRAND 119 

ports we are numbered, not named. We have 
since had a note from a friend, beginning, ' ^ Dear 
No. 46.'* 

With another dinner at the Harrisons and an- 
other tea at the Randolphs, our visit to Greenville 
closed. The girls would not give us up and per- 
suaded us day after day to stay, but Mrs. Norton 
came after us herself on Sunday, the 8th of Feb- 
ruary. We came in on the cars quite late, so late 

that the Judge and Mr. R both went with us 

to the station and would have proceeded to town, 
but we would only consent to accept the company 
of one. 

February 9th [1863]. Reported seizure of the 
arsenal by Governor Seymour, of New York. 
Probable seizure of Lincoln. I don 't believe these 
reports. The old Democratic party is indeed 
aroused, but it is a law-abiding party, and I do 
not think we can expect of it any violent proceed- 
ings. They are disgusted with Lincoln, but they 
helped to elect him and must tolerate him. Banks 
has been warned by his Government that he is to 
be lenient to us. He has done nothing for us, but 
he has committed none of Butler's enormities. He 
does not give up seized houses, but they say rent 
is to be given by those occupied by Government 
officers; however, nobody expects the payment. 
He does not encourage tale-bearing of negroes, 
and has had no one arrested for opinion's sake, 



120 JOURNAL OF JULIA LE GRAND 

but lie has had none of the innocent, imprisoned 
by Butler, released. I have heard that he speaks 
often unkindly to ladies who go to him begging 
for their husbands or friends to be released. ^^My 
husband will die, sir, his health is so bad, and my 
relative has lost his mind in confinement,'' said 
one lady to him. *^We must all die, madam,'' he 
returned; *^ prison life affects men differently; 
some lose their minds and some die; this we can- 
not help." Poor Mrs. Harrison has been weary- 
ing herself for months in behalf of her husband 
who has been confined in the Custom House with- 
out comforts and with many others in the same 
room — offence, as far as it can be made out, 
trying to save the property of a ** rebel" friend, 
Captain Dameron, formerly a Confederate Guard. 
vThe three Episcopal ministers, Mr. Fulton, Mr. 
Goodrich, and Doctor Leacock, arrived here last 
week. They were sent off by Butler for not pray- 
ing for the President of the United States. They 
were well received in New York by people of 
secession tendencies there; were treated with 
great kindness and were invited to preach in the 
churches. All reasonable people, all indeed, ex- 
cept fanatics, cried ^^ Shame!" on the treatment 
these divines had received in New Orleans. Banks 
having arrived here and there being no proba- 
bility of Butler's return, these three ministers 
have ventured hither. 



JOURNAL OF JULIA LE GRAND 121 

They were not allowed to land because they 
had not taken, and would not take, the oath of 
allegiance to the United States Government. This 
proceeding caused great excitement and many 
persons have visited the boat, the Cromwell, in 
which they are imprisoned. They were trans- 
ferred to the McClellan and reshipped to New 
York after being refused even one visit to their 
homes, or a simple walk on the shore they loved 
so well. No Episcopal minister dishonored him- 
self here by taking the oath to a Government he 
had abjured. Seven resisted, though these three 
only were sent off. If Butler had remained, others 
would have suffered, as they had been ordered to 
hold themselves in readiness. Last summer when 
they were first threatened and the excitement of 
the people on the subject was discussed, I could 
not help thinking of the trial of the *' Seven 
Bishops'* — ''the Seven Candlesticks.*' How 
history repeats itself in spite of the progression of 
our race. Sarah Erwin, now Mrs. Doctor Glen, 
was in Doctor Goodrich's church last fall when 
Colonel Strong dispersed the congregation. 
Never had she thought to witness such a scene. 
Before the time had come for praying for the 
President of the United States, or the time for 
the omission rather. Colonel Strong, who had 
been mistaken by the congregation for one of our 
own people, arose and whispered something in 



122 JOUENAL OF JULIA LE GRAND 

Mr. Goodrich's ear. Colonel Strong, Butler's 
agent, was very pale and much excited, and as he 
was wrapped in a cloak which covered his mili- 
tary dress he was thought some mourner who had 
requested the prayers of the minister. He had 
appeared so nervous and so depressed and so 
deathly pale that he had excited the sympathy of 
the people; great was the surprise, therefore, 
when he arose and in the name of the Government 
of the United States forbade the ceremonies of the 
church to proceed, and ordered the congregation 
to disperse. 

There was an immediate uprising of the people 
and a rush to the pulpit; the first thought was 
that Doctor Goodrich was in danger. No one was 
safe from arrest in Butler's time. Women wept 
and men muttered and I am told that even oaths 
were heard; some women who had always been 
considered timid and gentle, openly defied Strong 
and denounced him to his face. Strong threw off 
his cloak and this gave a full view not only of his 
elaborately wrought regimentals, but also of a 
goodly show of side arms. The sight of glistening 
steel and pistols in that peaceful assembly neither 
calmed nor awed it. Many became infuriated 
and women especially clustered around Strong 
to his evident fear. One old lady called down a 
curse upon him and all he held dear. All thought 
it a proper place, perhaps, in which to open 



JOURNAL OF JULIA LE GRAND 123 

those vials of wrath, the existence of which the 
church warrants. Pale but firm, Doctor Goodrich 
asked permission at least to give his blessing to the 
congregation. ^^No,'' cried the brute Strong, **I 
f orbit it.'^ ^^My people,'' returned Doctor Good- 
rich, *^ shall not depart without my benediction," 
He then made a few remarks that filled the build- 
ing with hysterical sobs. After the people had 
left church, they were again ordered to disperse, 
and at the very door a Federal asked of Colonel 
Strong permission to send for the artillery. ** You 
had better order up a gunboat, sir, as that seems 
to be your only safeguard," returned an excited 
young woman, said to be a Jewess. An old lady 
made protest by saying that she had as good a 
right as Butler himself to stand upon the ban- 
quette and that she would return home in her own 
time. It was the most disgraceful scene. It is 
said that Butler was gazing with the aid of a glass 
from his own window; he had not then stolen 
Mrs. Campbell's house and was residing in 
General Twiggs', and was reported to have been 
highly amused, but his adjutant. Colonel Strong, 
remarked that he would rather go to battle than 
to go through the same excitement again. Doctor 
Goodrich was arrested some time after this event 
and has been in New York some months. When 
he will be able to return to his anxious wife after 
this second exile, Heaven only knows. Mrs. Good- 



124 JOURNAL OF JULIA LE GRAND 

rich is supported by contributions from her hus- 
band's flock; they are not able to do as much as 
they wish for her as all fortunes are in a state of 
ruin now. Servants have run or have been taken 
away from plantations, houses burned, banks 
robbed, and all business suspended; lawyers can- 
not practice and no one can sell a piece of prop- 
erty without first having taken the oath to the 
United States Government. 

Some time ago there was a report here 
that the Alabama, or 290, after destroying the 
United States steamer Hatteras had appeared 
at the mouth of this river; that pilots had 
gone on board of her and that Captain 
Semmes had sent by them a challenge to 
Farragut to come down in his flagship and fight 
him. It is believed, and the pilots were said to 
have been imprisoned upon their return because 
they had taken the oath to the Confederacy on 
board the 290, Farragut did not go, but the 
Mississippi was sent down in great haste under 
son\e other pretense. It was said that the Oreta 
or Florida, Captain Maffet, was also at the Balize. 
Those taken prisoner by these two Captains re- 
port them gentlemen ; they treat their captives in 
a different manner to that in which the Yankees 
treat ours. Captain Maff et is a small, slight man, 
very timid, blushes like a girl when he attracts 
notice, looks like a poet, and is, from the pris- 



JOURNAL OF JULIA LE GRAND 125 

oners' report, a gentleman, every inch of him. 
Mr. Fulton has had a call to a church at Snow 
Hill, Md. ; he has been told that he need not pray 
for the President of the United States there; 
don't know that he will accept it, has no support. 
Our churches here are open, but I have not at- 
tended ; our regular ministers do not officiate. In 
our little Calvary church Mr. Lyons reads a writ- 
ten sermon and goes through the service. Rose 
Wilkinson attempted to play the melodeon and 
attended three or four singing meetings for that 
purpose, but Mr. Payne, a pompous Englishman, 
who has made a great deal of money here, was 
so rude on account of a few mistakes, which were 
the consequence of her timidity, that she declined 
going any more. Mr. Tucker, one of our gentle- 
men, whose ear is quite as good, bore with her 
kindly and politely. Mr. Payne has since had al- 
most a contention with a Mrs. Hedges, a Scotch 
lady, who has taken Rosa 's place ; she sings songs 
and ballads sweetly and with much taste, but does 
not sing church music correctly, they say. Mr. 
Payne says so. He doesn't look as though he had 
an ear, it was a great mistake in nature to have 
given him one. I should like to tell how disagree- 
able and pompous he is; if he were not rich he 
would be afraid to express an opinion, so I think 
of him. 
February 16th [1863]. To-night read aloud 



126 JOURNAL OF JULll LE GRAND 

Cox's speech to Ginnie and Mrs. Norton, Cox of 
Ohio — though I was inwardly grieved at the posi- 
tion of these people and consequent misery to so 
many innocent ones, I could not help laughing at 
this speech and the frequent interruptions and 
cries it met with, especially when Butler was in- 
troduced. I am glad that creature seems to meet 
with general hatred, though in Boston those 
fanatics got up a sort of pretended welcome to 
him. He, having heard that the fanatics were 
about to turn off all generals not of the same poli- 
tics as themselves, made haste to change his ; he 
once pretended to be a Democrat, but he has 
joined the Abolitionists, and gives as excuse that 
he was made one in New Orleans. He tells in 
his speech to the people a thousand stories of the 
social life here to justify his treatment of the 
people. The negroes plied him well with false- 
hoods when he was here, and he took off (stole) 
three or four negroes and his wife did the same, 
when they left here — though to the world his 
^^ order*' forbidding this proceeding still stands. 
That order never was intended to be obeyed; it 
never restrained anyone — ship-loads of negroes 
belonging to citizens here have been carried off 
by Federals. 

Cox's speech dissects the Puritan and Yankee 
character to the core ; I do believe that it repre- 
sents it truly. They are cold, hard, unscrupulous. 



JOURNAL OF JULIA LE GRAND 127 

persevering meddlers, and should live by them- 
selves and never have a voice in any government 
intended for other people; they have given 
trouble wherever they have lived ; their vanity and 
egotism are supreme; they are the cause of this 
war of brothers; and others, inflamed by their 
bearing-down qualities and eloquence, have given 
them a helping hand. There seems to be now a 
general awakening at the North. The sovereign 
people will soon be in the political field and have 
already cried out that acts like those which dis- 
grace the Lincoln government shall not be done in 
their name. Cox's speech closes with a beautiful 
poem addressed to South Carolina upon her se- 
cession. It filled me with a passionate, almost a 
tearful regret for the Union; we can never for- 
give the Massachusetts Puritans for what they 
have done. The same old feeling which made us 
love the Union as it was will prevent our accept- 
ing it now. 

We read also a most interesting letter in the 
'New York World, written in the name of the 
citizens of New Orleans. 'Tis in answer to But- 
ler's farewell address to the people of this city, 
and refutes ably its many falsehoods. Butler's 
address was an inflated falsehood from beginning 
to end. This letter enumerates some, not all, of 
Butler's offences against decency, law and order, 
in a calm, determined, unostentatious way. I read 



128 JOUENAL OF JULll LE GRAND 

it with pleasure, for it was all true, and was in- 
deed a dignified production. I don't know who 
wrote it, but the people of New Orleans, with the 
exception of the Dutch, echo every sentiment it 
contains. "We read in the same paper an exposi- 
tion of the conduct of the speculators from 
Yankee-land, and the Federal officials who have 
cheated the planters and gone home with large 
fortunes. This war and this infamous people 
have developed and disclosed corruption on a 
tremendous scale. Now the Caucasian contained 
the account of Cameron's attempt to buy one of 
the Pennsylvania legislators ; I am glad to learn 
that even one of that infamous administration 
has failed in his ambitions. I have seen one of 
the Eras, a new paper established here in place 
of the Delta. It is a shameful thing; not even 
genteel. I am provoked to learn that the editor 
complains of the loss of his '^Tennyson.'' I 
don't like to think of his reading so prized a 
volume. The English, it is said, find much fault 
with President Davis' retaliatory proclamation. 
I do not usually like harsh measures, but these 
people — these Federals — are tO be dealt with in no 
other manner. They mistake leniency for fear; 
they have not chivalry enough to comprehend. 

When the infamous Pope in Virginia last sum- 
mer desolated for five miles around where any 
guerrilla destroyed one of the people who had 




R. LeGRAND JOHNSTON 



The well-known artist, considered to be the finest painter 
of sheep in America. 

Nephew of Julia LeClrand 



JOURNAL OF JULIA LE GRAND 129 

come to desolate and spoil Ms friends, a retalia- 
tory proclamation from Davis established the 
only law which enforced better behavior. Every 
ruler must protect his people; if the enemy are 
not governed by decent laws, if the wholesome 
restraints of civilization are unknown to them, 
some one must meet them with force. How many 
Virginia homes were desolated by that wretched 
Pope! I have the utmost respect for General 
McClellan; no act of his disgraces him except 
his acceptance of a position in the Federal Army. 
He was suspected of Southern tendencies all 
through his career; they say the South could 
have got him if she had bid high enough. He, as 
an enemy, however, has acted the chivalrous part. 
I took a fancy to him in the early part of his 
career in Western Virginia. It was a knightly 
act, I think, to place our General Garnett's dead 
body on ice that it might present no hideous 
changes to the loved ones who awaited it. He is 
out of the service now and the Federals have 
shown their distrust of him by endeavoring to 
disgrace him. Burnside, his successor, has also 
resigned, and Hooker, a fighting man, has taken 
his place. He, however, is mud-blockaded on the 
Rappahannock and can not carry out his belliger- 
ent views. A great many Federal officers have 
resigned recently and the privates are dispirited 
and mutinous. Two or three hundred have been 



130 JOUENAL OF JULIA *LE GRAND 

put under arrest in the last few days for refusing 
to go to Baton Rouge. They did not come to fight, 
they say, and would not have been here at all if 
they had not been drafted. Orders have come 
from Lincoln that Port Hudson should be attacked 
immediately; great drilling, artillery and other- 
wise, going on daily in the streets and squares. 
The Harrison girls and the Ogdens have been 
down frequently ; they beg us to go back to Green- 
ville ; they tell much that is amusing of the camp 
near them. The negroes are constantly singing 
**Hang Jeff. Davis on the sour-apple tree.'* This 
is a beautiful, solemn air ; an old Methodist hymn. 
Mr. Randolph called twice to see Mrs. Norton 
about taking up Leah, the old woman who made 
her grandchild steal our money. 

We have company every day, and often all day ; 
I can neither read nor write. What I commit to 
this book is so disconnected that I have half a mind 
to desist. Even if we are free from company for a 
moment or two, Mrs. Norton fills up the time by 
reading aloud to us these tiresome city papers. I 
have a disgust for them, because they do not dare 
to speak of anything that interests us. I write in 
such confusion and so rapidly when I have an 
opportunity, that I often cannot read myself 
what has been written. I fear my little niece, 
Edith [Mrs. Edith Pye Weeden, now of Austin, 
Texas], for whom I wish to keep a good and in- 



JOURNAL OF JULIA LE GRAND 131 

teresting journal, will think her Auntie has a 
sorry, sorry sort of mind and style. I never could 
concentrate my thoughts when in a confusion, and 
here we have it all the time. Our room fronts on 
the gallery and it seems to be a thoroughfare for 
all parties; not one moment can we command. 
Dear Mrs. Norton can't comprehend how young 
people can wish to be alone ; she is old and hates 
solitude. "When she sits in her own room and we 
in ours she continually calls something out to us ; 
she is devoted to newspapers and I cannot bear 
them except when they contain something of 
worth. These papers, The Bee, The Picayune, 
The True Delta, are all worthless now. The Era 
does not wish to, and our papers do not dare to, 
tell the truth. The New York papers are under 
much less restraint than ours. We have too large 
a Federal force in the city for the truth to be 
uttered except in whispers. Mrs. Waugh has 
spent several mornings with us ; she has brought 
us Davis' last work on Spiritualism; he approves 
of the War, not if it is conducted to restore the 

Union, but for slavery. Mrs. N is talking to 

me and I cannot take heed of my periods. I feel 
angry with Davis (Andrew Jackson Davis) for 
approving of this war ; he should divine the spirit 
which guides the combatants. What good can grow 
out of such strife! Speculators and thieves can 
not introduce good by warring and the Federal 



132 JOUENAL OF JULIA LE GRAND 

Army is made up of them. They go to the bat- 
tles with their pockets stuffed with counterfeit 
Confederate money which they intend to pass off 
if they succeed in getting into the country. Hand- 
cuffs were carried to the field of Manassas — we 
were then a parcel of '^Rebels'' to be easily con- 
quered and terribly punished. Ah, how many a 
gallant neck the hangman would have touched if 
our braves had not boldly met them on the field. 
A great power must watch over the destiny of 
nations — now we are a nation to be ruined by 
other means — the *' Rebellion'' is a great revo- 
lution. 

By sending $5.00 to New York you can get 
$20,000 Confederate dollars — counterfeit, of 
course. These advertisements appear in respect- 
able journals, Harper's Weekly, for instance, 
which considers itself a vast civilizer, though it 
recommends that servile insurrection should over- 
run the South. It is nothing that our homes 
should be burned and that Southern women and 
children should be startled at midnight by the 
wild beasts which Africans become after having 
scented blood. Northern women, too, are willing 
to see their Southern sisters subjected to every 
danger and infamy. To think of emptying pris- 
ons and penitentiaries of hardened wretches and 
saying, ^^ Hurrah, and God speed youT' to them 
on their mission of destruction. 



JOUENAL OF JULIA LE GKAND 133 

Two vessels of war, blockading at Sabine Pass, 
have been captured by the Confederates; one, 
the Rachel Seaman, was burned by the Yankees 
to prevent capture ; we attacked with two cotton- 
protected steamers and took the Victory and the 
Morning Light — also money and supplies. Com- 
modore Farragut pronounces the giving up of the 
Harriet Lane at Galveston and the escape of the 
rest of the fleet from two *' cotton steamers'^ as a 
pusillanimous affair. 

The breaking of the blockade at Charleston is 
declared by the enemy to be a much less important 
affair than we thought it — this means that several 
vessels have come back to begin the blockade over 
again, not being willing to own that it has been 
broken. I, as well as others, believe that the 
Quaker City was sunk in Charleston harbor. 

February 17th [1863]. Mrs. Dameron and 
Mrs. White came to the gate late and found Mary 
Jane outside talking with other negroes, after 
having locked it, or pretending to do so, and 
bringing the key in to Mrs. Norton. This decep- 
tion in a girl in whom she has had so much con- 
fidence made Mrs. Norton anxious and nervous 
all night. She got her money, pistols and other 
defences near her and kept the light burning. So 
many horrible things have happened that one can 
not be too careful, but I do not think Mary Jane 
meant to do more mischief than to leave the gate 



134 JOURNAL OF JULIA LE GRAND 

open so that she might have company within or 
go out at will. The deception was what was to 
have been expected of a negro. I do not feel fear 
for others now — I never did for myself — now that 
Banks is here ; he does not throw people in prison 
without a trial on the testimony of a negro, as 
Butler did. Mrs. Dameron came in because a gen- 
tleman who had run the blockade had brought her 
news of Mr. D . All well outside. 

No fight at Port Hudson yet ; Farragut and his 
flagship, the Hartford, still here. The town is 
filled with rumors and our friends who are always 
trooping here, keep us well plied with them. I 
do not record them all, because I forget them. 

February 18th [1863]. General Banks and the 
planters met to-day. A series of resolutions has 
been made. The amount of the whole matter is 
that General Banks promised to do what he could, 
though fettered by his Government, to send the 
slaves back to the plantations, and he has re- 
ceived a great many compliments in return for 
his promise. Many people, myself among .the 
number, disapprove of the whole affair. No 
agreement should be entered with our enemies or 
the Government which sends them here. Our 
dear boys are fighting for our rights and many 
of their papas are entering into terms with their 
armed invaders. 

February 19th [1863]. Mrs. Waugh came in 



JOURNAL OF JULIA LE GRAND 135 

while I was doing up my collars. She read us 
Davis' book while I was busy. She is so simple- 
minded and true that I should not blush if she 
visited me, and I had only a crust to offer her. 
The exchanged prisoners go out tomorrow. A 
great many are going to see them off. Report 
says that the Laurel Hill, the boat on which they 
were to be sent, is captured by our people up the 
river. 

February 20th [1863]. Mary Harrison came to 
ask us to go with her to Mrs. Payne 's and thence 
to see the prisoners off. We did not feel like 
standing so long in such a crowd, though anxious 
to wave a handkerchief to them, too. Mary prom- 
ised to come back to dinner, but Mrs. Dameron 
sent us an invitation to dine while Mary was here, 
so she declined coming back. We spent the day 

at Mrs. D 's. Had quite a discussion about 

spiritualism. I don't like to hear people say a 
thing can 't be true, or that it is not true and that 
they know it isn't. I said that I felt too ignorant 
of nature's mysteries to say what was or what 
was not true. Our being is so mysterious and the 
laws which govern it are so mysterious that I do 
not know how many other mysteries I may be 
involved in. I said that I was sure of one thing 
and that was that nothing but truth could live; 
false doctrine must die out, but truth can be 
crushed out only for a season. An abiding law 



136 JOUENAL OF JULIA LE GRAND 

of the universe must be abiding and revealed 
sometime. I am determined to be prejudiced 
against nothing but ignorance. Most people show 
so little sign of having thought at all except in 
commonplace, everyday matters, that it is a relief 
to be entertained with a beautiful fancy logically 
sustained as Mrs. Waugh sustains hers. 

Sent for by Mrs. D on account of company 

at home; found Mrs. Wells, Mrs. Roselius and 
Mrs. Gilmour. Annie Waugh came in afterwards. 
Mrs. Wells tired out, having been running from 
one Federal ruler to another for days trying to 
get permission to send her young daughters in 
the Confederacy a few necessaries — no success 
after all her trouble. These people never say no 
at first. The Queen of the West, or, some say, the 
Conestoga, passed Vicksburg some time ago ; she 
has captured three Confederate vessels with pro- 
visions, and has entirely cut off communication 
by water between Port Hudson and Vicksburg. 
Our Red River supplies and those from Texas 
also cut oif. She must be sunk or captured. I 
expect to hear of one or the other in a few days. 
I read a speech of Wendell Phillips. No Jacobin 
of France, not even Robespierre, ever made so 
infamous a one. He says an aristocracy like that 
of the South has never been gotten rid of except 
by the sacrifice of one generation ; they can never 
have peace, he says, until ^* every slaveholder is 



JOUKNAL OF JULIA LE GRAND 137 

either killed or exiled.'' He does not approve of 
battles — the negro should be turned loose and in- 
cited to rise and slay. ^'They know by instinct 
the whole programme of what they have to do," 
he says. I at first blamed our secession, but our 
politicians knew these awful people better than 
I did and now I am glad that we are, or will, be 
rid of them. 

February 21st [1863], Yesterday the Confed- 
erates, clad in the dear gray uniform and ladened 
with women's gifts, gathered, according to order, 
upon the levee. The Laurel Hill, contrary to ex- 
pectations, came up, but meantime the Empire 
Parish was appointed to take them beyond the 
lines. The Laurel Hill lay close beside her ; also 
the iron-clad, Star of the West. These men have 
been trying for months to get out, but the authori- 
ties here feared that they would join the ** Rebel" 
army. It was not believed when the order to 
register was given that so many wished to go. A 
promise was given that at least a thousand should 
be sent out on the exchange vessel, but when the 
day came the number was cut down to three him- 
dred. The excluded were furious, and many to 
whom no passports were issued would press up 
to mingle with the more fortunate. Thousands 
of women and men, whose hearts warmed to the 
uniform, gathered at the levee to see them off — 
what happened, the following quotation from a 



138 JOUENAL OF JULIA LE GRAND 

lady^s letter to her sister in Europe will tell: 
J **I went yesterday to see some fourteen hundred 
exchanged Confederates leave the levee, and while 
the scene is still fresh in my mind, I will tell you 
of it. Such conduct as we witnessed! It was fit 
only for barbarians. At least ten thousand per- 
sons of all ages and sexes congregated on the 
wharf to cheer their beloved soldiers; mothers, 
wives, sisters and lovers were crying bitterly; 
many old men had handkerchiefs to their faces, 
others standing still with a fixed stare on the 
boat, which they could not approach. A steamer, 
the Laurel Hill, which was near, was crowded like 
an ant hill; all the balconies, even the roofs of 
the houses, were filled. Thousands of different 
kinds of vehicles were on the levee, all filled with 
ladies and children. Suddenly there was a cry of 
* Disperse the people!' Then a company of sol- 
diers, with bayonets fixed, rushed through the 
crowd. A bayonet touched my back ; I was so in- 
dignant that I forgot to be afraid, nor would I 
have hurried had not the flying crowd pushed me 
on before them. I then got in the carriage of the 
ladies who had asked me to go with them, when 
presently another cry arose, *Let all carriages 
leave tlie street, or they shall be run over by 
artillery.' 'Pshaw,' said I, Hhey dare not do it.' 
A policeman imperturbably answered me, * You '11 
see if they dare not.' Before the last word was 



JOURNAL OF JULIA LE GRAND 139 

said, sure enough down came a full battery in full 
gallop. Our horse stood upright with fright; 
drays, carriages, furniture carts, all got en- 
tangled. If the horses had not been more noble 
than their riders, they would positively have gone 
over us; they refused to advance until lashed to 
fury by the soldiers, and that pause enabled the 
carriage drivers to open a road for them. Such 
screams you never heard. The last look I gave 
to the levee was in time to see several women 
running, the foremost of whom fell, and those 
behind got tangled in their skirts and came down 
over them, while the horse ^s breath, like thick 
smoke, fouled their upturned faces. I am sure 
some of them must have been killed. I should 
have told you that before I got into the carriage a 
soldier placed a bayonet across my path and for- 
bade my going further; ^ Order as you please,' 
said I, *but don't dare to touch me.' An old Irish 
woman shrieked out, ' Even that divvil of a Butler 
had never run over the people.' I was so indig- 
nant that I could have fought like a man. I can 
understand now why so few run in battle. The 
people who had gathered on the Laurel Hill were 
also ordered off, but they refused to go, saying 
that no artillery could reach them there. The 
Captain then put up steam and went out into the 
river ; when they passed the boats containing the 
prisoners, their shouts rent the air. Ladies on the 



140 JOURNAL OF JULIA 'LE GRAND 

levee had handkerchiefs tied to their parasols, 
others had flowers, throwing and giving them to 
the Confederates who were still on their way to 
the boat. To some tobacco was given and to 
others $5.00 notes. When those on the boat saw 
the artillery running over the women and chil- 
dren, they gave the battle yell and one of them 
lifted a Confederate flag he had. A Federal 
rushed for it, but it was passed from one to an- 
other ; it was got at last, however, and the soldier 
who bore it fell into the water amidst the shouts 
of laughter and clapping of hands. One English- 
man cried out, ^ Oh, that the Rinaldo was here ! ' 
A Frenchman wished for one of his war vessels, 
and a common Spaniard roared out, ^In dis revo- 
lution you feared even of children.' The negroes 
laughed and clapped their hands to see us run 
over, and one screamed out, ^Here, let me get out 

of this d d secesh.' The carriages were not 

allowed to remain even one square from the levee. 
Our General Clarke was among the prisoners ; he 
was carried on a litter by the gentlemen and 
attended by Doctor Stone.'' 

This quotation from Mrs. Roselius 's letter gives 
but half of the horrors of the scene. The whole 
town is talking of the disgraceful behavior of the 
Federal authorities. These men had been prom- 
ised that they should go out; passes had been 
refused them, and when discovered running the 



JOURNAL OF JULIA LE GRAND 141 

blockade they were shot down. The number nad 
been cut down to three hundred who were allowed 
to go on the Government boat, which fact gave 
disappomtment to many. The Federals say they 
do not intend to recruit for the *^ Rebel" service. 
Mrs. Norton was down town in the morning, but 
she did not go to the levee. She met a Confeder- 
ate soldier dressed in the dear gray and pre- 
sented him a $5.00 note which she happened to 
have about her. He took it as a keepsake ; shook 
hands with her, and hoped some day to see her 
again. She told him that it did her heart good 
to look at him. The Federals with all their gay 
parade here are solitary and alone in all their 
drills and marches ; nothing shows the tone of the 
public mind here more than this. No boys ever 
follow them except a few daring ones sometimes 
who hurrah for JefP Davis, ^'StonewalP' Jackson 
or Beauregard in their very faces. Sometimes 
the ^^ Bonny Blue Flag'' is sung to them and chil- 
dren have been arrested for this offence. Our 
Confederates, after they began to gather, were 
followed street by street with loving eyes and lov- 
ing cries ; hands were shaken that had never met, 
and alas, were likely never to meet again. Here 
the words, *^God bless you, God speed you," 
really meant much. The Federals felt keenly the 
magic of the words, *'Our soldiers." One officer 
was heard to remark, *'This looks like a of 



142 JOURNAL OF JULIA' LE GRAND 

a Union city to-day.'' It is wonderful how soon 
we have learned to love the stars and bars. I 
thought I never should at first, but I do now. An 
adopted child is more tenderly thought of than an 
unworthy son or daughter, though a wild regret 
may ever mingle with the anger and scorn which 
an insulted parent must feel. 

The boat which was carried out into the stream 
went farther down the river; the Captain told 
the ladies he intended to take them to Fort Jack- 
son. They begged him to go back, as many had 
left infants at home ; he would take them back, he 
said, if they would behave themselves- Finding 
that he had no such intentions, they all commenced 
to sing the ''Bonny Blue Flag,'' ''My Maryland," 
"Jeff Davis is a Gentleman," and every other 
revolutionary air they could think of. Of course 
"Dixie" was not forgotten. All this was impru- 
dent, to say the least of it; it would have been 
more lady-like to have been quiet. They were in 
Yankee power, and it was shown to them as 
harshly as possible. They were kept on this boat 
until next day ; they had nothing to eat but some 
crackers so old, it is said, they were made in 1812. 
Children were crying because they had nowhere to 
sleep and nothing to eat. Wlien the boat stopped 
to coal a few hardy women got off and walked 
home, three or four miles, a great distance for a 
Louisiana woman. There are hundreds of inci- 



JOURNAL OF JULIA LE GRAND 143 

dents connected with this affair ; some of a serious 
and others of a laughable nature. One lady was 
killed that I know of; it is feared others were. 
The papers do not dare mention what happened; 
the Yankee Era did say that all next day people 
were running about in a distracted manner look- 
ing up lost relatives. One nurse with a child is 
missing. We hope the Confederates saw it all 
well and will report it outside; it will swell the 
battle cry. The old one of * ^Remember Butler and 
New Orleans, ' ' did the Confederacy good service ; 
it acted like an inspiration to Louisiana soldiers. 
Even after this scene, the Yankee Era came out 
with a flaming article about the Union feeling of 
this city. There are hundreds more people who 
hate the Yankees to-day than there were a week 
ago. The whole matter was repudiated by Gen- 
eral Banks next day. Some say French sent the 
artillery down. Some German captain will have 
to bear the infamy of charging with bayonets 
*vomen and children who had come to say farewell 
to dear ones they might never see again. The 
people here have had their feelings pent-up so 
long that they might have been allowed this one 
vent in peace. Many handkerchiefs were bay- 
oneted, also dresses; only one man was actually 
struck that I heard of. One Federal soldier said 
to another that they had stove in the ^ ' rebellion, * * 
** broke its backbone to-day.'^ Mary Ogden heard 



144 JOURNAL OF JULIA LE GRAND 

this herself. The Ogden girls were not on the 
ground, but near Greenville on the river bank; 
they placed a striped shawl on a pole under the 
pretence of drying it; they knew the Confeder- 
ates when they passed would understand and 
cheer what they meant for a flag. Their Uncle 
Walter, fearing some insult from it, made them 
take it down. They waited long for the Empire 
Parish to pass, but went home without seeing her. 
The soldiers did not get otf until next day. The 
Federals, intentionally, it is believed, ran her 
against the iron-clad Star of the West, lying close 
by her. This was done in broad daylight. It is 
said they wish to sink our soldiers. Of course the 
boat was disabled and the soldiers detained. They 
had nothing to eat, and dear ones on the shore 
were not allowed to take them anything. They 
don^t wish these men to go into the Confederacy 
until after the fight at Vicksburg and at Port 
Hudson are over. These are imminent, they say, 
but it is believed by many that the long delay has 
been occasioned by a fear to commence. The 
Federal army here is not thought true to Federal 
interests. The Western men read constantly of 
opposition to their Government in their own 
States. A Western Republic is constantly talked 
of. It is proposed to ^^ Leave New England, the 
author of the mischief, out in the cold.'' 
February 22nd [1863]. Clear and beautiful. 



vi«-,>^S^fei'.t% 




MARY JOHNSTON 
(Mrs. Fielder C. Sliugluff) 

Niece of Julia LeGrand 



JOUENAL OF JULIA LE GRAND 145 

Cannons were fired. Numerous reports as usual. 
Company to dinner who reported fighting over the 
river. Mary Harrison on her way from church 
met three Confederate soldiers under arrest 
taken from the boat. A hundred were sent off, it 
is said. Willy Thompson, a young friend of Mary 
Waugh's, became furious with disappointment — 
said if he could not go into the Confederacy, he 
would go to Fort Jackson. Consequently he gave 
his tongue license and was arrested on the boat 
and brought before Colonel Clarke. This gentle- 
man, who stands out from the Federal groups 
here like a piece of harmonious statuary, merely 
said to him that he knew he had met with a dis- 
appointment, ''and now, young man,'' he con- 
tinued, ''you had best take yourself off home as 
soon as possible. ' ' The remaining prisoners were 
transferred to the Brunswick, and were carried a 
few miles above Baton Eouge. They left the boat 
giving three cheers for Colonel Clarke. We 
" Rebels'' are not all fire-eaters and savages, as 
it pleases Northern satirists to style us, and really 
know how to appreciate a kindly enemy even. Our 
hearts ached this morning to hear that fiYQ of our 
Confederate friends fell overboard, owing to the 
slipping of some wood, and one of them was 
drowned. The Yankee Era says that the ' ' Rebel ' ' 
officer who called the roll of our prisoners at 
Houston, is Lieutenant Todd, brother of Mrs. 



146 JOUENAL OF JULIA LE GRAND 

Lincoln. He is tall, fat, and savage against the 
Yankees. 

February 24tK Great stir among the Yankees. 
Much hard riding. They have stolen and forced 
people to give up every horse in town, even car- 
riage horses. They ride as though the world were 
coming to an end. Some unhappy-looking troops 
have just passed our door with knapsacks packed 
and a pretty flag flying with 12th Battery upon it. 
The cannon have been sent to the boat; we pre- 
sume that these people are on their way to Port 
Hudson. 

February 25th. Invited to lunch at Mrs. Rose- 
lius's — had headache — so had Ginnie; concluded 
late to go. Found everything delightful, and 
pleasant company. Can't say, though, that I have 
any fancy for any sort of company just now. 
After lunch, ran over to Mrs. Waugh 's in my light 
silk, to which she has taken such a fancy, and felt 
in another atmosphere with her. No memories 
of the jarring world when with her, or at least an 
inspiring confidence that we can live above them. 
How purely intellectual she is! How free from 
vanity, egotism and pedantry which men have 
pleased to associate with a learned woman. Her 
conversations are sometimes beautiful lectures 
that fall from her lips without effort and with 
simple elegance. Indeed her heart speaks in 
everything, and there is a sincerity and earnest- 



JOURNAL OF JULIA LE GRAND 147 

ness, a childlike sweetness, that spiritualizes her 
most didactic discourses. I like Mrs. Roselius 
better than any woman of the world I have ever 
known. She has seen much of society — she has 
elegance of manner, tact and good taste — she has 
not lost her natural warmth of heart, or her en- 
thusiasms; she has much charity without show 
and is both ingenuous and truthful. She is smarts 
even talented; but neither thought or conversa- 
tion are purified by sentiment. It amuses me to 
hear her talk, for she seems to know all that hap- 
pens, but I never feel any better or wiser after 
having listened to her for hours. On the contrary, 
some of her most amusing sketches of life, people 
or character depress me wonderfully, though I 
laugh over them. She lives next door and is very 
sociable. I'm ashamed to say that we are not. 
Her husband is such a Federal and talks so 
abusively of Southerners that she excuses our 
want of sociability on that account — but I consider 
him such a silly person that his petulent talk does 
not affect me in the least. I never get angry witli 
a silly person ; I do not consider them responsible. 
When the New Orleans Guard was deserted out- 
side of the lines, and its members stole inglori- 
ously back to enjoy the luxuries of the city — 

Mr. R excused them. He said that he, too, 

**was brave, that he would stand to be shot at as 
well as any man, but that gentlemen could not 



148 JOURNAL OF JULIA LE GRAND 

endure camp life. Be could not eat pork and 
beans. Those Virginians and Mississippians 
(mentioning people from other States) were not 
gentlemen, he said; they ought to fight.'' It was 
useless to talk to a man who could not feel the 
meaning of hating, yet stealing in to lead a life 
of inglorious ease, leaving the burden of defence 
to be borne by others. Nobly has that burden 
been borne by others — Louisianians, American 
sons have won honors on every field. 

Much dissatisfaction was felt here for a time 
over President Davis' speech at Jackson. It was 
partial and addressed wholly to Mississippians, 
though the army by which he was surrounded was 
composed of men from all States. The battle of 
Chickasaw Bayou was fought by Louisianans and 
Georgians. These men were entitled, even as ex- 
iles from home, to kindly mention — but no word of 
praise, except to Mississippians. The women of 
Vicksburg were approved because they expressed 
wishes that the town should be shelled rather than 
surrendered. The women of New Orleans rushed 
in numbers to sign a paper imploring that this 
city should never be given up. They were fear- 
less, they said ; we signed it and would have been 
glad enough to have resistance made. I have al- 
ways felt that Davis was a partisan, rather than 
a father of his country; a politician rather than 
a statesman. I heard him speak once and was not 



JOURNAL OF JULIA LE GRAND 149 

satisfied. I can never learn to love him as I do 
Washington or Lee, ^'StonewalP' Jackson, or the 
two Ashbys even, who were willing to serve their 
country in any capacity. It does me good to feel 
that thousands of men are privates in this war, 
undergoing, voluntarily, all sorts of deprivation 
and hardships, who, before the war, were wealthy 
and lived in luxury. Thousands of our country- 
men are yielding to the authority of officers who 
are far beneath them in wealth and social stand- 
ing. This state of things gratifies the hero- 
worship that has always stirred my heart. I hate 
man-worship or place-worship — it corrupts — but 
in hero-worship I feel that I serve but my ideal. 

The ram. Queen of the West, has been captured 
by our Confederates up Red River. Some of the 
men escaped, but many were taken prisoners. 
We captured guns and useful supplies. One of 
our men, John Burke, had been seized to pilot the 
boat up Red River that our batteries could be 
captured or destroyed — he was forced under a 
Federal guard and therefore felt privileged to de- 
ceive them. When quite near he assured the Fed- 
erals that they were still fifteen miles distant; 
they were, therefore, more unprepared than they 
would have been. A warehouse on shore was 
fired by one of our officers, which lighted up the 
river. We made a complete triumph of it. I am 
glad that this capture was made in Louisiana, for. 



150 JOURNAL OF JULIA LE GRAND 

owing to the fall of New Orleans, she has been 
somewhat depreciated in the Confederacy, though 
I think the Government at Richmond was more to 
be blamed in that disaster than the people who 
had trusted all defences to their military supe- 
riors. Large contributions were made here to 
the defence of the city and to the general war. 
And had not the citizens been trammeled by the 
general Government, the city would not have 
fallen. Its fall had been anticipated by those who 
Imew anything of military matters, but to the 
people at large it was a great surprise. They were 
therefore totally surprised and unprepared and 
showed panic — that undignified state of things. 
It was reported at one time that Butler had gotten 
hold of the ladies' list and was to bring to justice 
all offending therein. Butler was so senseless in 
much of his tyranny, that any report of him could 
receive credence. I firmly expected to go to prison 
when the others were taken, when the oath-taking 
was going on. Judge Ogden told us of a young 
lawyer friend of his who took the oath, not for his 
own interests, but to protect those of others. He 
had in charge a large property belonging to 
minors, and as he could have no control over it, 
or practice in any of the courts unless he took the 
oath, he took it. He has since gone completely 
mad in consequence — he suffered so and his 
thoughts were completely filled with it. This is a 



JOURNAL OF JULIA LE GRAND 151 

terrible case and I know of another just like it. 
That wretch Butler has much to answer for. They 
continually threaten to send him back here, but 
we do not fear that he will come. The Consuls 
had him removed, and beside we do not think that 
he would trust himself to the watery pathway in 
which the 290, or the Oreta, may find him. 

The Yankee paper reports that the Alabama 
(the 290) is captured and that we are about to 
evacuate Port Hudson and Vicksburg on account 
of starvation. We do not heed these stories. 

February 26 [1863]. Read constantly of oppo- 
sition to the Government at the North. A civil 
war there thought to be imminent. Mrs. Wilkin- 
son, who lost her husband at the battle of 
Manassas, and who hastened out of the city at 
that time, leaving her children, has just come to 
town. Would people in any other land believe 
that a woman, under such circumstances, could be 
arrested for not taking the oath to the United 
States? No one is allowed to land without doing 
so, though nothing has been done so far to those 
in the city who resisted. Mrs. Wilkinson is under 
arrest, having refused the oath at St. Andrew's 
House. Her children would not have learned of 
her arrival through the morning paper but for an 
accident. She is to be sent back, and is trying to 

get leave to take her children. Kate W took 

breakfast with us this morning. I told her that I 



152 JOUENAL OF JULIA l^E GRAND 

thought her mother highly honored, she had re- 
sisted and that we were leading the dryest and 
tamest sort of life, and had no chance of being 
thought martyrs, though we are, in truth, often, 
in another fashion. Mrs. W says that no at- 
tack is to be feared at Vicksburg, the Yankee 
troops having come over to us in the last fight 
there in whole squads, bearing with them the 
smallest flags of truce. Our people did not see the 
flags at first, being so excited and the generals had 
difficulty to restraiii their ardor. In this way, 
many poor fellows were murdered who would have 
been our friends. The Yankees have deceived us 
so often that our people fear almost to trust a 
flag of truce. I feel so sad to think of those poor 
fellows ; what a hopeless feeling must have taken 
possession of them between the two fires, not 
trusted by either side. Under other circumstances 
I would not trust deserters, but in this war thou- 
sands long to come to us, being convinced that it 
is wrong to overrun the South. Some, too, con- 
sider their cause a hopeless one. There are three 
hundred deserters in Jackson alone and they are 

coming in all the time, Mrs. W says. They are 

in high spirits, Mrs. W says, outside the lines 

and do not look as we do here. Our soldiers have 
plenty of everything, even coffee, though out- 
siders have to pay well for it, if they get it at all. 
Flour is $80 per barrel. Kate says that her aunt, 



JOUENAL OF JULIA LE GRAND 153 

Mrs. Eccleston, in Vicksburg, has devoted herself 
to the Louisiana troops. They say she belongs 
to them. We want to go ont with the Wilkinsons, 
if these people will let ns — here comes the martyr- 
dom — money due us all round, and cannot ask for 
it, because the times are pressing so on all. Mr. 
Randolph was here this morning; he thanked us 
for letting our house free of rent to them. Mr. 

R did not take the oath and was thrown out 

of business. We were glad to be of some use. Oh, 

I wish we were rich. Kate W , Mrs. Randolph 

and Detty [Margaretta] Harrison have taken up 
my morning. I like them all, but love best to be 
alone of all things. I am so worn out sometimes 
by the constant stream of talk around me that I 
am nearly crazy. I fear I shall get the same sort 
of buzzing in my head that Mrs. Wragge com- 
plains of (from ^^No Name,'^ by Wilkie Collins, 
that I have just read). I like this book better than 
his ^^ White Woman ^' or "Woman in White." He 
has too much plot to suit my taste. Life is full of 
plot, too, but I have never felt that a book that 
contains much of it gives a true representation of 
life. I prefer the volume that seems but a page 
torn from real life. I care not for startling inci- 
dents, but only the gradual development of social 
life and a good delineation of character. I notice 
though that plot and incident are more popular 
than quiet truthful pictures. 



154 JOURNAL OF JULIA LE GRAND 

Thackeray is no favorite here; I find few 
of my friends here who will even try to com- 
prehend him. To me he is the first of Eng- 
lish writers. ^* Vanity Fair'' gave me a great 
shock. I do not think I could ever have 
been quite so happy again, after having read that 
book, even if life had not gone hard with me. It 
taught me to look under the veil, and I have been 
looking under it ever since. And my God, what 
have I not seen ! Indeed I do not love the world, 
but I have met with some really good and pure 
people. Thackeray's books are magnificent pro- 
tests against the social life of England. I wish we 
had such a man. We would not take our lashing 
and dissection from a stranger. I sometimes think 
that even one of us could not tell the whole truth 
to our country people. They love flattery, it must 
be confessed. The Northern people have sickened 
me with boasting. I hope ours will adopt a system 
of inciting and elevating to a high state of things 
rather than claiming it without an effort. Let 
there be truth-telling in all things. Thackeray 
really holds up a glass to his country-folk, and to 
humanity at large. He is not popular, because 
people do not like the real cut of their features. 
There must be moral cosmetics as well as those of 
another sort to keep people in decent humor with 
you. People call Thackeray names, but for my 
part I even feel grateful to the man who has 



JOURNAL OF JULIA LE GRAND 155 

given to us a Thomas Newcome and an Ethel. 
Fault is found with his Washington, too; it is 
truthful, sublime. His whole ^'Virginians** is a 
splendid page from colonial history. 

We went to see Mrs. Montgomery and Mrs. Wells 
this afternoon ; met Mrs. Roselius, who asked us to 
call for her at the Little Calvary Church, whither 
she was going to attend another singing effort. 
Mrs. Hedges has sent word to Mr. Payne that she 
would not sing there for a thousand per night. 

Found Mrs. M sick. The Judge sleeping in a 

big chair and Mrs. Wells out of spirits from not 
having heard from her little girls. Her husband 
she does not expect to hear from until the war is 
over, he having run the blockade to Vera Cruz. 
These are sad times. The girls are in Vicksburg, 
but word is sent to us outside the lines that no 
danger to that place is to be apprehended. The 
famous canal dug by the persevering Yankees is 
utterly useless to them. They are now on the 
lookout for some bayou that runs, I believe, into 
Red River, which they propose making into a new 
Mississippi. They waste much time and breath, 
also much newspaper — ^if we were timid we would 
be overwhelmed by the wonderful things which 
they intend to do. Judge Montgomery gave us 
Seward's letter to read — the one in which he 
declines the proffered mediation of France. I 
wonder, really, if anyone will be deceived by this 



156 JOURNAL OF JULIA -LE GRAND 

plausible, specious letter. Mr. Seward resembles 
the ostrich in one respect — he does not put his 
head in the sand, by any means — but he imagines 
other people can not see. The position he assumes 
for his Government is an utterly false one. He 
must know it. Deception on the part of the United 
States' Government has kept up this cruel war; 
it remains now only to be proved that people are 
still willing to be blinded. We read protest after 
protest in Northern papers and speeches — some 
of them really noble ones. The leaders seem to 
fear no longer to tell the truth and the people are 
rapidly awakening from their lethargy and blind- 
ness. The people who have been unjustly impris- 
oned — now at liberty — are to meet in New York 
on the 4th of March. I think on that occasion the 
turning of periods will assist wonderfully in the 
turning of minds and purpose. There is some- 
thing awfully exciting in the voice of a roused and 
angry people. The great stakes played for by 
this people and all the world, thrill me with a more 
tumultuous interest even than that I gave in my 
girlish days to the angry barons who met at 
Runnymede, and the stormy parliaments that 
raved at Martyr Charles. How history re-creates 
itself, or how, rather, man remains the same 
though his robes are changed. 

Called for Mrs. R according to promise; 

met at the church door Mr. R , also Miss 



JOURNAL OF JULIA LE GRAND 157 

Marcella Wilkinson, Mrs. Stevens and others. 

Mrs. R took us home with her. Tried not to 

talk war with Mr. R , but he would be pro- 
voking (and silly). Stayed until eight, and got 
home to find Mr. and Mrs. Burrows. Here was 
more talk over the same themes, until ever so late. 
I like them both, but oh, how tired I was. Could 
I have let them know it 1 How can we but regard 
a species of deceit as a peacemaker? My deceit, 
or amiability (there are two names for every- 
thing, and our characters depend upon the point 
of view), sent me to bed tired enough. There is a 
camp near the Burrows house. They are there- 
fore able to give us many proofs of the insubordi- 
nation and demoralization of the Federal soldiers. 
At 12 o'clock a few nights ago they were roused 
by one who was hiding in the house to elude the 
guard. They are escaping constantly, and Con- 
federate women aid them by giving them clothes. 
A mulatto woman fined three dollars for singing 
a Confederate ballad. An exhibitor of portraits 
arrested and put in jail, after a loss of his pic- 
tures, for exhibiting Stonewall Jackson and Lee. 
The children are sometimes arrested for their 
^' Rebel' ' cries and the street boys hate the Yan- 
kees and do not follow them in their most brilliant 
turn outs. Our Confederate and Livandais 
Guards could never drill or march without a 
crowd. 



158 JOURNAL OF JULIA' LE GRAND 

February 27th [1863]. Invited to dine at Mrs. 
Dameron 's. Went. It rained all day. Had quite 
a defense to make of the Episcopalians and Catho- 
lics to Mrs. White. How the Methodists do hate 
other denominations. So do the Presbyterians. 
I rarely hear Episcopalians speak illiberally. I 
hate bigotry. I believe that the churches have 
aided to harden people's hearts against one an- 
other. There is nothing so narrowing as 
sectarianism. 

February 28th [1863]. Intended to go and help 
Katy Wilkinson pack to go out with her mother, but 
it rained too hard. Have written two letters, to 
Mrs. Chilton and Claude on soft Blockade paper, 
we call it, which are to go in a spool of cotton. It 
is a great deprivation not to be able to go beyond 
these hateful lines with the Wilkinsons. But I 
need money. Mrs. Dameron offered me some 
yesterday, but I can not borrow. Mrs. Randolph, 
whose husband owes us for a few months' rent, 
offered to raise it for me, but times are so hard 
for people who are out of business, and who came 
here strangers as they did and who are cut off 
from friends who might aid them, that we told her 
we would not take it from her, even should she 
gei it for us. I felt grateful to both for their 
heartfelt interest in us and feel that we have 
made friends for life. The Campos people who 
owe us a great deal are also in trouble, and thank 



JOURNAL OF JULIA LE GRAND 159 

us for not troubling them. Mr. Lancaster went 
off in fright when the Yankees came, without 
paying us. Mrs. Norton has money owed by Mrs. 
Chilton in her possession, but we can not bear to 
ask for it. It is ours really, but she does not 
offer it. So here we are a fixture, where our 
hearts are almost breaking. From the little store 
we had left, an acquaintance borrowed $300 ^^just 
until my husband comes in''; that was six weeks 
ago, and no word of it yet. I would not ask for 
so small a sum, but I greatly fear we shall need it. 
I have visited her twice and she has been here 
and members of her family, and it would be some- 
thing for an outsider to pity us for if he could 
note our hope that it might be offered us. I would 
pity anyone who had been reduced to such straits 
as we have. All through others, too, and a weak- 
ness we have in not being able to ask for our own 
money. If I could get outside these hateful lines, 
I could use my Confederate money, and Claude, 
poor fellow, could perhaps send me some more, 
even if we could not get to Texas. Ah, well, some 
people are born for both small and large mishaps. 
But enough of this — we must stay here until the 
Blockade is over, I suppose — we have expended 
within a few dollars our whole stock in laying in 
provisions lately. I feel, and so does Ginnie, the 
honest principle to purchase what we eat. I find 
myself, since the hard thoughts have taken posses- 



160 JOUENAL OF JULI^l LE GRAND 

sion of me, doing without everything at the table 
which we have not helped to buy. These are 
homely details indeed, when the Muse of History 
may wander at will, and dignify my pages with 
the hopes, fears, sacrifices and misfortunes of 
nations. Garibaldi, in Italy; Louis Napoleon in 
Mexico; English operatives perishing with hun- 
ger; Exeter Hall jubilant and triumphant over 
our Southern distress and what they call the 
^^ Freed negro race''; battles lost and won; cities 
captured and recaptured; a virgin soil bathed 
with the blood of its sons ; a nation bathed in its 
tears; a new Confederacy and a new flag born 
into the world. Ah, Stars and Bars ! How many 
years will it be before you float in an unjust cause 
over fields to which you have no right ! All these 
things and more the Tragic Muse and her sisters 
may gather and record in this awful year of '63 — 
and here am I penning the common items which 
belong to a suppressed and narrow life ; the piti- 
ful details; the painful platitudes; the weari- 
some monotony incident to the everyday life of 
two women. Well, I have some right to make my 
cry go up with the general voice, more especially 
that I feel indeed that I ^'have no language, but a 
cry." 

Mrs. Dameron stayed all day with us. A 
sweet, earnest little soul. She is not demonstra- 
tive, but we have been made to feel that she is 



JOURNAL OF JULIA LE GRAND 161 

fond of us. I rely upon her wonderfully, but we 
have few thoughts in common. Mrs. Roselius 
spent the afternoon with us, and I found myself 
again unaware a champion of a religion. A 

friend of Mrs. R 's has joined the Catholic 

Church and she has '^ceased to respect her.'^ So 
runs the everyday stream. We all think differ- 
ently and hate each other because we can not see 
alike. With the standing point changed, the view 
would alter, too. The more I see of life, the more 
lonely I feel. I shall never, never be tempted into 
a church— a membership I mean — sectarianism 
awes and disgusts me, yet I often, often covet that 
brotherhood feeling which the members of one 
association seem to enjoy. A common cause; 
whether it be religion, politics or business binds 
men, though they may hate all other causes be- 
side. My ideas meet nobody ^s, whether they are 
stirred by patriotism (by which I mean loving all 
that is good — not claiming all among my country's 
people, boasting only of what is good — not claim- 
ing all good and a willingness to submit to much — 
to all trials — for the common good and honor 
and defence of home), by religion, or by any of 
the high or low possibilities which range our daily 
pathway. My ideas meet no one's, I say again, 
and I often feel an isolation of heart even when 
meeting with general kindness. By religion I 
cannot understand anything but a kindly inter- 



162 JOURNAL OF JULIA .LE GRAND 

pretation of human action ; a gentle forbearance 
with all efforts of the human heart toward God — 
whether those efforts be Catholic or Protestant. 
It is with a feeling of profound wonder and awe 
even, with which I behold the common idea of 
hugging salvation for one's oivn people and com- 
munities — and committing all others to — to say 
the least of it, to some undefined horrors. The 
general satisfaction under such a state of things, 
I say, awes me. 

I wish I could have known a certain poet who 
lived here before the war — Capt. Harry Flash. 
I wish I knew Tennyson, Hawthorne, George 
Eliot (Miss Evans) and I wish I could journey 
back far enough on the pathway of time to meet 
the large, untrammeled gaze of Edmund Burke. 
I have admired the sermons, rather the philoso- 
phizings, of Ellery Channing; and those of the 
Right Reverend Doctor Clapp of this city ; to me 
they seem imbued with Christ's spirit, though 
they differ in letter from the churches. The 
*^ Great Harmonia" of Jackson, the Spirihialist, 
is a work which has met and convinced my reason, 
soothed my anxieties, unraveled my perplexities, 
pleased my imagination, lifted my aspirations, 
reconciled much of paradox to my mind and 
tinged with far-off hope my longings. These 
books my friends condemn. All authors that I 
love, fall under the ban with my acquaintances. 



JOUENAL OF JULIA LE GRAND 163 

I alloiv latitude — and take it — and yet it is a lonely 
life that I lead now. I have known the bliss of 
meeting of thought, but it is gone, and never on 
this side of eternity can it be mine again. Our 
opinions make us — I cannot yield mine. 

I had had a sort of enthusiastic regard for 
Beauregard, but to-day I heard that his wife has 
much need to complain of him — I was told by one 
who is familiar with his social relations — in an 
instant the feeling in my heart for this hero 
vanished, and a pained one of disappointment 
took its place — so we go on in life until we have 
nothing left. In my walk this afternoon I met 
little Charley Mushaway(?), a little dark-eyed, 
fair-haired beauty, who cheers for Beauregard 
and Stonewall Jackson constantly. I did not 
wish him to cheer for Beauregard to-day. A man 
is as nothing to me who sins against the purity 
and divinity which sits by his hearthstone — Love. 
Saw Mrs. Wilkinson and the girls — told us much 
of matters going on outside of the lines. She is 
very much changed — grown completely gray in 
one month. She went out some months ago. The 
death of her husband at Manassas having reached 
her as a rumor, she went out to ascertain its truth. 
She had much difficulty in getting a passport out 
and has now been arrested for not taking the 
oath upon returning to see her children. Some 
faces relax, even under great grief, but she seems 



164 JOURNAL OF JULIA *LE GRAND 

even to have forgotten how to smile. Slie is going 
out with her children, whenever the upstarts will 
let her. Our soldiers outside are far from starva- 
tion. They have food and clothes, even coffee in 
plenty. Many of our young privates, who are 
from the best families in the land, miss thousands 
of home comforts, but there is no desponding ; no 
lack of spirit and determination to stand until 
the last man, rather than to give up to the 
Yankees. 



IV. 

Makch 1 — Makch 15, 1863. 

March 1st [1863]. Beautifully clear— rather 
cold; trees all in bud and the squares opposite 
emerald green and glittering. Mary Harrison, 
Ella, Sissie and Ally, their brother, called on their 
way to church. Didn't go with them. Stopped on 
their way back and waited for the car— told us 
of the welcome to Confederates in Lexington, Ky., 
and showed us a likeness of Kirby Smith, which 
had arrived in a letter from that city. Smith 
looks like the earnest, brave and pious soldier 
which report speaks him. This likeness is some- 
what faded, having been sunk on the Ella Warley 
on her way from New York and recovered. Two 
bags of letters have been fished up. We, Ginnie 
and I, cannot help hoping that the one granting a 
power of attorney to the Campos family, which 
will enable them to pay us, is amongst the rescued. 
It seems that the common thread must mingle with 
that which Lachesis lengthens and Atropos severs. 
What life and life interests must have gone down 
on the Ella Warley. Mrs. Eoselius came in the 
evening with Mr. Denman, a Yankee, but a South- 
ern one. Butler's arrival in New York, he says, 
created no sensation. His arrival was not pub- 

165 



166 JOURNAL OF JULIA XE GRAND 

lished. The flaming accounts we had read here 
of his magnificent reception, were little more than 
advertisements of a non-existing greatness, paid 
for by Butler himself. This wretch, it seems, is 
in favor with none but the vile Abolitionists. 
They continuously talk of sending him to Charles- 
ton, or back to this city. Charleston is not taken 
yet — never will be — and we don't believe Butler 
would risk meeting the 290 on his way here. I 
was sorry when I heard he had been made much 
of at the North. For I am humanitarian enough, 
and Christian enough, I hope, to wish to see a 
respect for right, purity and justice even among 
enemies. No man who had respect for himself, 
honesty, truthfulness, bravery or kindness to 
women would take Butler by the hand. The 
cause of humanity is served, I think, when such 
brutes meet their deserts — universal contempt. 
The Federal army is rich in brutes and brute 
force. Mr. Denman gave a description of a visit 
of Stafford (the general of' the negroes) to the 
bank last summer. He came in with a shin- 
plaster, and with a horrible oath told one of the 
bank gentlemen to pay the amount in gold. On 
being told that there was no gold, but that small 
notes would be issued soon, he swore terribly, 
drew his sword and flourished it in the wildest 
manner, threatening to cut their heads off. Mr. 
D owned that he was as afraid of him as he 



JOURNAL OF JULIA LE GRAND 167 

would be of a horned devil. ''I'se got your Mayor 
down to Fort Jackson,'' said Stafford, grinding 
his teeth, ''where I hope the mosquitoes will eat 

out his d d heart.'' And more of this sort. 

The banker looked at the note and found it one 
of the coffee-house issues, with which the city last 
spring was flooded, and which Butler (very prop- 
erly) had ordered to be redeemed, said he : "This 
is not our note ; we have nothing to do with it, ' ' 
whereupon, Stafford took it up and turned round 
upon a crowd of women and children who had 
followed him into the bank, flourishing his sword 
over them and swearing at them. This creature is 
below the city, having in command 1,400 negroes, 
armed and equipped, wearing the leather belt 
which other soldiers wear, having the letters U. S. 
in brass upon it. The once honored ''Stars and 
Stripes" can be borne by such hands as these. 
Many of the negroes in camp having yielded to 
temptation, and been beguiled by Yankee false- 
hoods into running away from their masters, now 
that they realize their position, wish to return to 
them. But Stafford refuses to allow them to go 
home. We, against whom these poor creatures 
are arrayed, have no fear of them, at least as 
soldiers. They will fly at the first fire. Stafford, 
with his band, have been committing depreda- 
tions in the country, but their gallant efforts have 
been confined to house-breaking, house-burning. 



168 JOUENAL OF JULIA J^E GRAND 

chicken, horse and cattle stealing, and impudence 
to white people. Nothing more clearly defines the 
subordinate position, or the real justice of their 
position, more than their total want of social vir- 
tues. They are never true to each other, either in 
friendship or love. And even the maternal tie is 
not strong with them. Last spring, when the 
Yankees came, and even before then, many persons 
had gone into the country with their house ser- 
vants, very often leaving behind husbands or 
wives in the Confederacy. I know of many in- 
stances where such interest was taken by their 
owners that they have written or sent for servants 
so situated, but in not one case have I known one 
to go. A life of lounging round the streets, feeding 
at the expense of the United States Government, 
has proved more enticing than the memories of 
wife or child. They have mostly gotten new 
mates. Mrs. Norton, in letters from her family 
and friends, is often charged with messages to 
servants who do not even wish to hear from those 
that are gone. I was once an Abolitionist, and 
resented for this race's sake their position in the 
awful scale of humanity. But, I verily believe, 
that negroes are not now developed creatures. 
What they may be sometime I can not prognosti- 
cate, but I do believe in the law of progress. I 
call to mind the age when Britons wore skins, and 
hope for all things. 



JOURNAL OF JULIA LE GEAND 169 

March 2nd [1863], Mr. Randolpli was here 
soon after breakfast. He sits a long time and 
talks wonderfully slow. He had nothing new to 
tell ns of war matters and Mrs. Norton gave him 
a cut for that — she lives entirely on the daily 
events without connecting them in her philosophy 
with other events. The rumors of the hour and 
the miserable newspapers, falsifying one day 
what they have given out as truth the day previ- 
ous, filled with impossible schemes and barefaced 
braggadocio, fill her mind. She reads scraps of 
these papers to us before we are up, calling 
through the door which leads to her room, oftener 
opening it wide so we are put to straits to dress 
ourselves in private. Whether I am reading, 
writing, or thinking, those newspaper scraps are 
read and their contradictory jargon mangle and 
cut into pieces any idea which might soothe my 
brain, whether of mine or another's. Oh, I am so, 
so weary. The making of the new Mississippi 
channel is now occupying the attention of the 
brave authorities here and elsewhere. Therefore 
we don't expect, as we have been expecting, the 
great attacks at Port Hudson and Vicksburg. We 
had a solemn *^ extra'' out this morning to tell 
us that New Orleans is to be made an island ; so, 
also, Vicksburg and Baton Eouge. Mary Harri- 
son came in while Mr. Randolph was here and 
read the ** extra" aloud to us. We laughed a good 



170 JOURNAL OF JULIA ^.E GRAND 

deal over Yankee boasting. Our batteries on the 
river wMch they have been saying were a ^^mere 
nothing'' to take, are now to be "got round.'' 
The great armies and navies of the United States 
are to make a new channel for themselves imme- 
diately in time to save that poor old Union. 
Nature may have in contemplation some changes 
in the bed of this wonderful river, but the Yankees 
are in this matter — as in most others — ^mere 
boasters. The people at large are deceived that 
a wretched administration may rule with a tyran- 
nical sway — they are robbed that public function- 
aries may fill their pockets, speculators run riot. 
I believe the Yankees themselves consider they 
have but two honest men, Burnside and the 
President. 

McClellan is not a favorite with the party 
in power, though his soldiers idolized him, and 
long for his reestablishment. We had a great 
argument at Judge Ogden's one night whether 
McClellan would or would not be the meanest of 
mankind if he again should accept his old posi- 
tion as Commander-in-Chief. Ginnie, Jule, Lizzie 
and myself took the stand that no man belongs to 
himself, hut to his country, if his country needs 
him, he must obey her call, though like any other 
mother she may have been both unjust and unkind 
to him. We contended that McClellan was the 
only approach to a general that the Yankees could 



JOURNAL OF JULIA LE GRAND 171 

boast; therefore, if he really loved the cause and 
his soldiers, he ought to accept his old place if 
offered, besides, we argued, his defeat was the re- 
sult of a party, and the whole country rose to 
welcome him on his return, and that was a real 
triumph for him, and the army made bitter com- 
plaints about his recall. Mr. Randolph and Mary 
Harrison sat some time, and the latter carried me 
off with her to see the Wilkinsons, leaving Mr. 

R with Ginnie and Mrs. Norton. I am afraid 

of hurting his feelings, as he is very sensitive; 
he is a good friend of ours and would, I believe, 
serve us in any way. He has led a wild, rambling 
life in Mexico, Peru and other places, and in this 
way has neglected many means of education. He 
would have made a fine specimen of a man if he 
had had the proper opportunities. He is quick 
and sagacious, and his instinctive judgment of 
men and things is good. His ideas have much 
more range than is usual with city men, whose 
thoughts (it seems to me) run in but two channels, 
pleasure or business. But his expression is slow 
and restricted ; he has neglected the means which 
would have aided his utterance. This man has a 
true chivalry of nature, which makes him inter- 
esting; he is not at all demonstrative or elegant 
in manner, yet you feel instinctively there is no 
meanness, no coarseness, no unkindness in his 
nature, and that he would do anything for a 



172 JOURNAL OF JULIA I^E GRAND 

woman — for a woman — without respect to her 
age or rank. He has dubbed himself a true friend 
of ours, and indeed I feel that sort of trust in him 
that would incline me to call on him in any trouble 
in preference to earlier friends. His brothers, who 
happen to be unmarried, are both in the army; 
so, also, are his brothers-in-law, and owing to cir- 
cumstances he is compelled to remain here and 
take care of his family and the family of his 
sister-in-law ; she has three children, he has two ; 
they are all quite young, timid and helpless. He 
pines to be in the army — his brothers have written 
him that they do not envy his position. I believe 
Southern men seldom fear in battle and like its 
terrible excitements. 

Many families in Vicksburg have caves under 
their houses containing stores and furniture, to 
which they intend to retire when the threatened 
bombardment of Vicksburg takes place. The 

house of Mrs. Eccleston, in which Mrs. W 

has been staying, had part of a wall and the tester 
of a bedstead torn away in the last engagement. 
Some of our soldiers imprisoned by the Federals 
were thrust into a house in which negroes had died 
of smallpox. These prisoners were then returned 
to us in their diseased state — this horror has since 
been spreading among our troops, many of whom 
have died, though we keep this matter as secret 
as possible. Refugees from New Orleans have 



JOUENAL OF JULIA LE GRAND 173 

been received into all houses by order of General 
Pemberton. Our soldiers need nurses, lint and 
bandages more than anything. Poor fellows, how 
I long to go out and take them something. Mrs. 

M took out a cheese to eat on the way, but as 

she did not touch it, gave it to the managers of 
the hospital at Vicksburg. It was received with 

delight and made much of. I left Mary H to 

get through her visit with Mrs. Pinkhard alone, 
and returned home. She came to dinner after the 
visit was over; said she had found some of our 
mutual acquaintances there dressed in the finest 
laces, silks and jewels, which added to the rather 

flashy elegance of the house, made Mary H , 

just from the pure circle of the Wilkinson's dis- 
coursing on our trials and patriotic struggles, 
and the homespun which many ladies wear, 
feel as if she were in another world. The Misses 
Norcum, rather noted for extravagance and 
worldliness, entertained her with their exploits on 
the levee the day of the trouble there. It is aston- 
ishing what latitude Miss M. Norcum allows her- 
self. She says she has gone further than any 
other woman in the Confederacy. Her father is 
not rich, but she dresses extravagantly, even in 
these times when wealthy women generally feel 
the cares and distress of the day too much to en- 
tertain a love of display. Miss Norcum 's patriot- 
ism consists in making saucy speeches to and 



174 JOURNAL OF JULIA LE GRAND 

ugly faces at the Federal soldiers. She does not 
tell her father what she does, she says. She comes 
of good blood; she has had the education and 
associations of a lady, and is old enough (being- 
some time out of her teens) to know better. Mary 
and I heard of hundreds of ludicrous circum- 
stances connected with the levee fight. ''The 
Battle of the Handkerchiefs,'^ it is called, is 
rather a good poem composed to honor the occa- 
sion and which I will copy here. Each day I hear 
something more of this scandalous scene. A Cap- 
tain or Lieutenant Thornton on General Shep- 
ley's staff (I won't say Governor Shepley) 
was speaking of the Levee Scene to a lady. "I 
would have managed them better, ' ' said he. ' ' And 
what would you have done, sir?" said the lady. 
''I would not have sent for cannon," said this 
Yankee knight, ''but I would have had cavalry 
armed with cowhides, to ride them down, whip- 
ping as they went along." What think you of this, 
future ages? Those are the civilizers who are 
prompted by pity to make war upon us lest we 
should become too savage, when entirely cut off 
from Northern influences. 

This afternoon a great troop of negroes 
were escorted by our door by Yankee sol- 
diers, bearing bayonets. They were to be 
taken to a brick yard and "put to work," the 
soldiers said, and were mad enough because of it. 



JOURNAL OF JULIA LE GRAND 175 

I could but pity the forlorn looking wretches as 
they went by. The Federals have done nothing 
worse than in deceiving this race ; they have been 
made the tools of both politicians and army offi- 
cers. Mr. Syewart brought us up Blackwood's, 
containing an article called, "A month's stay at 
Confederate headquarters." It is by an English 
officer and written in a spirit which seems won- 
derfully kindly for one of that nation. The de- 
scriptions of our magnificent Lee and Jackson, 
filled my heart with pleasure. The simple elegance 
of these two heroes have long ago captured my 
imagination. They are surrounded by no state, 
living like their men, yet they are venerated and 
obeyed. Our people are described as being brave 
and earnest, bearing ever in their hearts the 
greatness of the struggle, and a willingness for 
every sacrifice that can aid it. Read an article by 
Wendell Holmes entitled, ''My Hunt for the 
Captain. ' ' He met many ' ' Rebel ' ' prisoners, and 
they were all dirty, or idiotic, or something else 
which was hateful. They never knew for what 
they were fighting, except in one instance, and he 
''loved excitement." Maryland is spoken of as a 
State entirely "loyal" — this I know is false, or 
why have Maryland soldiers crossed the blue, 
peaceful Potomac to share the fortunes of their 
Southern brothers ! 
March 5th [1863]. We have company all 



176 JOURNAL OF JULIA LE GRAND 

day long. I think I prefer the fashionable way of 
receiving — only on reception days. I hate the 
custom, but acknowledge the wisdom of it. I can 
not read, write, or do anything I wish, people are 
so very social. Mrs. Waugh brought us an armful 
of books this morning. She is so kind, so true, 
that she is no restraint on one, as some other 
people are. She respects and comprehends opin- 
ion, though that opinion may not agree with her 
own. She is accustomed to luxury, but is so 
simple-mannered that I do not mind carrying on 
any of my work before her. I told her she always 
saw me au naturelle — she laughed and said she 
felt highly complimented. I wish we might have 
her for a neighbor always. She says we shall not 
be separated in another world. I willingly give a 
morning to her. This afternoon there were others 
here, but somehow they slip my mind. 

The Greatest Victory of the War, La Bataille des 

Moiichoirs, 

Fought Friday, February 20th, 1863. 

Of all the battles, modern or old, 

By poet sung, or historian told, 

Of all the routs that ever were seen, 

From the days of Saladin to JNIarshal Turenne, 

Of all the victories later yet won, 

From Waterloo's field to that of Bull Run, 

All, all must hide their fading light 

In the radiant glow of the Handkerchief Fight. 

And a paean of joy must thrill through the land 

When they hear the deeds of Banks' band. 



JOURNAL OF JULIA LE GRAND 177 

'Twas on the levee, where the tide 

Of Father Mississippi flows, 
Our gallant lads, our country's pride, 

Won this victory o'er their foes, 
Four hundred Rebels were to leave 

That morning for Secessia's shades, 
When down there came, you'd scarce believe, 

A troop of children, wives and maids 
To wave farewells, to bid God speed. 

To shed for them the parting tear. 

To waft them kisses, as the meed 

Of praise to soldier's heart most dear. 

They came in hundreds. Thousands lined 
The streets, the roofs, the shipping too, 

Their ribbons dancing in the wind. 
Their bright eyes speaking love's adieu. 

'Twas then to danger we awoke, 

But nobly faced the unarmed throng, 
And beat them back with hearty stroke, 

Till re-inforcements came along. 
We waited long; our aching sight 

Was strained in eager, anxious gaze, 
At last we saw the bayonets bright 

Flash in the sunlight's welcome blaze; 
The cannon's dull and heavy roar 

Fell greeting on our gladdened ear, 
Then fired each eye, then glowed each soul, 

For well we knew the strife was near. 

"Charge!" rang the cry and on we dashed 

Upon our female foes, 
As seas in stormy fury lashed 

When'er the tempest blows. 
Like chaff their parasols went down. 

As on our gallants rushed. 
And many a bonnet, robe and gown, 

Was torn to shreds, or crushed. 



178 JOURNAL OF JULIA LE GRAND 

Though well we plied the bayonet, 

Still some our efforts braved; 
Defiant both of blow and threat 

Their handkerchiefs still waved. 
Thick grew the fight, loud rolled the din, 

When "Charge!" rang out again, 
And then the cannon thundered in, 

And sounded o'er the plain. 

Down 'neath the unpitying iron heels 

Of horses, children sank. 
While through the crovvd the cannon wljeels 

Mowed rows on either flank ; 
One startled shriek, one hollow groan, 

One head-long rush, and then — 
Huzza, the field was all our own, 

For we were Banks' men. 

That night relieved from all our toils. 

Our danger past and gone. 
We gathered up the spoils 

Our chivalry had won. 
Five hundred kerchiefs had we snatched 

From Rebel ladies' hands; 
Ten parasols, two shoes not matched, 

Some ribbons, belts and bands. 
And other things that I forget; 

But then you'll find them all. 
As trophies, in that hallowed spot. 

The cradle — Faneuil Hall. 

And, long on Massachusetts' shores. 
Or on Green Mountain's side. 

Or where Long Island's breakers roar, 
And by the Hudson's tide. 

In time to come, when lamps are lit, 
And home-fires brightly blaze, 



JOURNAL OP JULIA LE GRAND 179 

While round the knees of heroes sit 

The young of happier days, 
Who listen to their storied deeds, 

To them sublimely grand. 
Then Glory shall award its meed, 

Of praise to Banks' band. 
And Fame proclaim that they alone. 

In triumph's loudest note. 
May wear henceforth, for valor shown, 

A woman's petticoat! 

This poem is written by no one knows who, and 
printed sub-rosa. An order was issued sometime 
back by General Banks, attaching severe penalties 
to throw scorn upon any United States officer. 
This order was issued in Butler's behalf, I be- 
lieve, as the streets were at one time filled with 
accusatory and satirical productions inspired by 
that famous general. I have heard that Banks 
has seen this poem and that he is very angry. I 
have heard, too, that he had nothing to do with 
having the cannon sent upon the women and chil- 
dren, and that the infamy of the whole affair rests 
with Colonel French. Oh, well, I have also a sur- 
reptitious ode commanding this dear Crescent 
City to ^' Cheer up,'' so I suppose that our day 
is coming. Thornton wanted the Cavalry armed 
with cowhides. 

Mrs. Norton has a written bet on hand with 
Mayor Miller — formerly on Shepley's staff — that 
Port Hudson would yield to Federal forces on or 
before the 4th of July. The stake, a basket of 



180 JOURNAL OF JULIA LE GRAND 

champagne. Mrs. Norton advised him to marry a 
Southern heiress and to change his politics. I 
would not let the upstart think, even in jest, that 
a Southern woman would marry him. He is good 
natured, but to my certain knowledge he is not 
honest. He lives in a ^'captured house'' and broke 
open the trunks which Mrs. Brown left there, in 
search of sheets and table cloths. This he said 
himself. 

The Indianola war ram has been captured by 
the Confederates. She passed the batteries at 
Vicksburg between the coal barges, which we also 
have taken. She was boarded, and the Queen of 
the West, which had also passed the batteries and 
been previously captured, was used in the fight 
against her old friend. She now floats another 
flag. We now have the river between Vicksburg 
and Port Hudson free of Federal vessels. Our 
trade from Red River, on which our soldiers so 
much depend, is still undisturbed. The last New 
York papers seem quite jubilant because their 
boat succeeded in passing the stronghold — but 
they were captured even before the news of the 
passing reached there. We are getting quite a 
navy. We have captured so much in Virginia, 
that the letters U. S. are stamped upon most 
everything we use — even the wagons and horses. 
Captain Semmes has been entertained at Kings- 
ton, and made a speech. People are anxiously 



JOURNAL OF JULIA LE GRAND 181 

looking for French recognition. Louis Napoleon 
is a deep character. I, for one, have no faith in 
his disinterestedness, and I am afraid to accept 
an overture of any sort from him. Should we be 
entangled with his politics I think our people 
would have more to remember than Louis XVI 
gave our forefathers. Recognition, perhaps, is 
our due, and nothing withholds it but a selfish fear 
of being accused of being too anxious to divide 
these States. That Europe desires the separation, 
we have had proof. Intervention (armed) I do 
not want. We have sustained ourselves so mag- 
nificently, that I feel a pride to fight all our own 
battles — fight them we can, both on sea and land. 
March 6th [1863]. Rained hard all day long. 
Could but pity the Federal soldiers soaking out 
at Camp Weitzel. Could but pity ourselves, too, 
shut up all day long with one who has not an idea 
in common with ourselves, but who will insist in 
talk about the war all the time, stopping long 
enough only to read the same sort of boasting 
stuff in the newspapers which have been filling 
them for months. Oh, how tired I am. I have never 
known before what ennui or loneliness meant, ex- 
cept when with uncongenial company. Mrs. N 

thinks we feel no interest in the war — if we don't 
have peace soon I think I shall soon lose my 
senses. We had an ** extra'' this afternoon which 
I read aloud. Nothing in it worth the trouble. 



182 JOURNAL OF JULIA LE GRAND 

The loss of our Nashville boat and the capture of 
the Indianola and coal barges being all known 
before. I looked out just as I was going to bed ; 
beautiful sight after a day of storm. The wet 
streets lay like pure silver beneath a lustrous full 
moon and stars, and soft white clouds strode the 
blue as peacefully as if we were all good and 
happy here below. The stars used to calm my 
most wretched moods — now they fill me with an 
unutterable longing. 

7th. Mrs. Harrison called to say that someone 
would take out a letter for us all. I had a disap- 
pointment in that way a few days ago. A man who 
was to have run out a schooner, was arrested and 
all his goods seized. Katy Wilkinson has sent us 
some more work, as we had often pressed her to 
do. We have sewed belts on pieces of dark cloth, 
doubled, which are to be worn on the girls' persons 
as skirts, and after crossing the lines, to be worn 
on the back of some Confederate soldier. Heaven 
send that the girls be not searched. They say 
they would not permit it. I would' not let one of 
the infamous creatures touch me. Mrs. Andrews, 
the wife of the Lieutenant at whose house Mrs. 
Wilkinson was imprisoned, was one of the women 
who volunteered to search the ladies who went 
out last time. She was at first very rude to Mrs. 

W , but that lady having one day asked for 

her daguerrotype, she was so flattered by the re- 



JOURNAL OF JULIA LE GRAND 183 

quest that she not only went down town and had 
it immediately taken, but has been in a good, 
polite humor ever since. She did not know that 

Mrs. W only wanted her likeness that she 

might show the features of her jailer in the future 
to her children. '^ Mrs. Harrison reports that all 
the soldiers have been sent from Camp Weitzel 
and Carrollton up the river. They have gone to 
Baton Rouge, and we suppose that means that 
there will soon be an attack upon Port Hudson. 
The Yankee Era reports the Confederate capture 
of the Yankee vessel No. 2 between Port Hudson 
and Vicksburg. Mr. Randolph brought us the 
news that fighting is going on, or suspected of 
going on, at Baton Rouge, our side having made 
the attack. Stonewall Jackson reported there. 
Oh, how I should like to see him! There is ex- 
citement of some nature afloat. Troops are being 
sent off and artillery has been taken from the 
square above us. Our people down town seem 

greatly aroused. Mr. R said a thousand men 

could take this city now. I proposed to him that 
he should seriously try to get his friends to join 
him in such an undertaking. There are twenty 
thousand men in this city who could aid our 
people if agreed. It is thought that the Federals 
do not wish to attack either Port Hudson or 
Vicksburg. They do not wish to bring matters to 
a crisis. They cannot depend on their men. A 



184 JOURNAL OF JULIA LE GRAND 

transport came up the river yesterday evening, 
the soldiers upon which being drunk sang the 
** Bonnie Blue Flag'' and shouted for Jeff Davis. 

The last Caucasian says that there are now but 
two parties in the United States — one, that of 
Jeff Davis, who supports the Constitution, and 
that of Lincoln who tramples on it. Our Major 
Prados, who was murdered by a deserter, was 
buried yesterday; his funeral was larger than 
that of Dreux, the first New Orleans officer who 
fell in the war. Banks sent word to the crowd 
that it must disperse, and that only the friends 
of Major Prados should attend him to the grave. 

*^Tell General Banks,'' returned the people, 
**that we are all his friends." A very good an- 
swer, I think. Someone remarked to Banks that 
this was called a Union city. **A Union city," re- 
turned Banks with contempt; *^I could carry 
every Union man in it on a hand-car. ' ' Such is the 
fact, really, and I can but mourn that so many 
took the oath when that wretched Butler was here. 
I do not wonder at timid people yielding, but I 
do wonder at that want of unity among an op- 
pressed people which would have protected them. 
Butler could not have revenged himself upon a 
whole town. No man or woman seemed to think 
that he or she would have been supported in re- 
sistance, and therefore did not attempt any. We 
fortunately made up our minds not to take it. 



JOUENAL OF JULIA LE GRAND 185 

And if the whole town had yielded, we would not 
have done so. People crowded so to take the oath, 
that we were under the impression that but a few 
intended to resist, and that those few would be 
certainly punished. So we tied up a few treasures 
which were to go to prison with us, and, with some 
fluttering maybe, waited our fate. Another ex- 
pedition into the Tech country under Weitzel. 
More desolation of homes. 'Tis to be hoped that 
Sibley, or some of our men, will be there to de- 
fend. We are such prisoners here that we know 
nothing. The Essex war steamer has been chased 
by our Confederate Queen of the West, and is so 
damaged that she is pumping water. Caucasion 
newspapers all suppressed. One smuggled sold 
for 75 cents. Banks has offered $500.00 reward 
for the discovery of the person who wrote *^La 
Bataille des Mouchoirs.'' Banks denies having 
anything to do with sending cannon and artillery 
down upon the women and children. Farragut 
disclaims the whole affair of having had the 
women and children carried down the river in a 
boat and kept there until the next day. They are 
much mortified — report says. 

March 8th [1863]. Clear and beautiful, this 
Sunday morning. Orange trees in full bloom and 
roses, honeysuckle and jessamine scenting the 
air. Too warm. Spring with all its beauty is a 
desolate season with me. I miss the kindly blaze, 



186 JOUENAL OF JULIA J.E GRAND 

the bracing atmosphere and even the lonely sad 
tone of the winter wind. There is something sad 
in seeing all things renewed but one's self. Chil- 
dren finely dressed are hurrying to Sunday 
school. Mrs. Norton in her best, getting ready 
for church. I do not feel like going. I wish I had 
some vent for myself, whether it were church go- 
ing or visiting. I feel so lonely-hearted always. 
Yesterday afternoon I was mortified, being for 
the first time in my life the occasion of a servant's 
falsehood. Often I have allowed myself to be 
persecuted by trifling converse rather than to 
send a false ^'Not at home," or a rude "Beg to be 
excused." After dinner Ginnie and I felt tired and 
not quite well — we had exhausted ourselves talk- 
ing with Mrs. Norton and Mr. Randolph, and as 
Mrs. Norton had gone down town, we thought we 
would refuse all that called and have a quiet time. 

Ginnie told Jane to say that Mrs. N was out 

and that we were not well. Mrs. Wells and Mrs. 
Montgomery called. We heard Jane say "Not at 
home ' ' for all of us. Called her up afterward and 
gave her a lecture on story-telling. She said she 
couldn't say we did not want to see anybody. Mrs. 
Roselius came; heard her tell the same thing. I 
was not dressed, or should have contradicted her 
in person. I was nervous really — partly because 

Mrs. R is accustomed to pass through our 

room, or would peep through the blind on the 



JOURNAL OF JULIA LE GRAND 187 

gallery to find if we were in. She retreated before 
I could get ready. Mr. Dudley called; Mrs. 
Callender— all shut up. Presently Mrs. Norton 
returned, bringing Mrs. Roselius with her and 
Jaque. The impudent little fellow had to open 
wide our door and make some remark about our 
being shut in the dark. We felt mortified, but did 
not go out. Indeed there should be some decent, 
yet truthful, way of denying one's self to people 
when one is weary and out of spirits. After tea, 
Mrs. Dameron and Mrs. White called and sat for 
a while. I went down to the gate with them and 
stood alone a little while looking upon the night. 
A full moon struggling with heavy clouds ; patches 
of blue sky and a few sweet stars. '' Custom can 
not stale" the infinite variety of the world above 
lis— the voices of the vast eternity are never trite, 
and the emotions they inspire never weary— they 
are ever fresh, though as old as the world. 

Mary Ogden in from Greenville this morning. 
The Yankees took away everything from the 
camp, she says, and burned everything they could 
not carry— not expected back in that region. 
Mary brought a letter from her friend, Roberta 
Archer, of Baltimore, to read to us. She writes 
as a Unionist— though a warm Southerner— and 
in this way can tell us much of the position of 
things in Old Maryland. She is thoroughly out of 
spirits about the political situation in her native 



188 JOURNAL OF JULIA J.E GRAND 

State. That Lee was not reenforced and welcomed 
by her country people, she is grieved and morti- 
fied. The Southern cause is warmly supported by 
the women and those men who have gone to the 
Southern battle fields are in high favor. Men, it 
seems, make the excuse of ^^Want of arms" in 
Maryland, as they do here. I, too, am distressed 
about Maryland's position. I would not have be- 
lieved once that the dear old State would have 
stood calm when the South was trampled on. 
However, many of her sons have left all to fight 
for a cause which their State has not adopted. 
They are noble fellows and will be exiles hence- 
forth. God help this ruined land. I would rather 
that Maryland should help to form a new Con- 
federacy than to remain a dishonored member 
of this one. There will, I expect, eventually be 
formed three Confederacies, if not now. New 
England should remain alone. 

Sammy Erwin has just come in to tell us that 
his sister, Mrs. Chalmers, is going to be sent out 
to-morrow and wants to see us. His brother, 
Stanhope, they have just heard, was killed at the 
battle of Murfreesboro. Went to see Em — Mrs. 
Chalmers — on Sunday ; found much company and 
had a full view of General Miles' house and yard, 
which are now occupied by Yankees. The privates 
were wrestling and tumbling over in the yard and 
out by the street gate, looking wholly unim- 



JOURNAL OF JULIA LE GRAND 189 

pressed by the great questions now at issue. I 
detached myself as much as possible from the 
general converse and speculated in my usual way. 
No one talks anything but war-talk. At home and 
abroad the eternal Yankee is dinned into my ears. 
I feel an intense interest in this terrible struggle — 
it underlies almost my every thought and action, 
and my alternate hopes and fears as to future 
events have worn me mentally and physically, so 
much so, that a ^ ^ waiting-f or-the-war-to-be-over ' ^ 
feeling has paralyzed my every energy. It is for 
this reason — because I have suffered and do suf- 
fer so much — I am soon wearied by the trivial 
details of the hour, even though the war and the 
Yankees give them birth. I found Sarah looking 
badly and Em is not to leave to-morrow. She is 
awaiting Yankee orders. I do not think that 
either she or the Wilkinsons will be sent out till 
that awful affair at Port Hudson is over. Em is 
not to be allowed to carry more provisions with 
her than are to be actually needed on the journey. 
*'I presume you will find plenty when that is over, 
madame,*' says satirical Mr. Officer, which meant, 
^^I know that they are half starving in the Con- 
federacy, but if you are silly enough to go there, 
you must abide the consequences.*' These officers 
ask numberless insolent (necessary?) questions 
when applied to for passports. They are gruff 
or otherwise, as the humor takes them. **Why 



190 JOURNAL OF JULIA J.E GRAND 

don't yon stay here and take your tea and coffee 
in peace?'' Bowen asked of Ginnie. ''Those peo- 
ple in the Confederacy can't let you have any- 
thing to eat out there." ''I don't fear depriva- 
tions outside the lines," said Miss Pride. I met 
the Misses Pritchard at Sarah's, daughters of a 
lady quite famous in Confederate sewing socie- 
ties and all sorts of associations. They are grace- 
ful girls; not very pretty, but intelligent, filled 
with sublime contempt for the Yankees. They are 
Philadelphia people. These adopted Southerners 
are much hotter than we, strange to say. Butler 
poured out particular venom on this class. • 

I left Doctor Glen 's early and called on the Wil- 
kinsons ; met there Doctor Fenner, who told us that 
our big ''Rebel Ram" is finished, and has run out 
of the Yazoo and is now lying at Vicksburg. She 
will soon begin to write her history. I hope the 
fate of the ram Arkansas will not be hers. After 
the Arkansas' brilliant dash from the Yazoo last 
summer, through the whole Federal fleet, fight- 
ing her way safely to Vicksburg, a thrill of en- 
thusiasm and admiration passed through us poor 
prisoners here, lighting our way, as it were. This 
feeling ended in a postive personification of the 
boat, and we spoke of our grim-faced champion 
as though it were a human being. We loved it 
and felt protected, even from afar. The Federal 
accounts of its passage through the great fleet. 



JOURNAL OF JULIA LE GRAND 191 

proved what a splendid and wonderful thing had 
been done, and after vessel after vessel had given 
her broadsides and left her unharmed, we began 
to feel towards the Arkansas as the mother of 
Achilles must have felt toward that invulnerable 
(vulnerable) hero after she dipped him. We 
were sure she was invulnerahle, so after the battle 
of Baton Rouge, when news of her death and de- 
struction came to us, we indignantly rejected such 
wild beliefs. For weeks, for months, the matter 
aroused warm discussions. One said, ^'It was a 
ruse of ours, the Arkansas would stir our blood 
again and yet again.'' Another contended that 
she had been blown up by our own people, be- 
cause her machinery had failed. Of course many 
resisted the idea of inefficiency in our pride and 
pet. "No, we would not believe it," and so we 
did not for months. Indeed our faiths pro and 
con were sadly confused by the reports of eye 
witnesses. This man had seen her blown up — 
the other had seen her captured and finished by 
the Essex (Federal), while yet another had seen 
her towed off in safety toward Vicksburg. (Later 
accounts.) This lady knew a reliable gentleman 
who had just run the blockade — he could swear 
that he had seen the Arkansas on such a day 
under the batteries safe at Vicksburg. This was to 
be kept a great secret, both as regarded the ram 
and the blockade-runner — this reliable gentleman, 



192 JOURNAL OF JULIA LE GRAND 

through fear of the meddling Butler, was never 
forthcoming, and so we went on keeping his secret 
with all our might, only whispering it throughout 
our various circles, I know a gentleman (Doc- 
tor Camel) who still believes in the Arkansas. 
On this day, March 8th, Mr. Randolph knows 
a man who is bold enough to say that he knows she 
is safe. Queer world this. 

People are beginning to look forward to an at- 
tack on this place once more. I do not intend to 
get excited as I did last summer. How often was 
I told as I lay down at night to put a dark dress 
by my bedside, as the Confederates would be here 
by morning. Dozens and dozens of nights were 
appointed for the attack, and dozens of mornings 
broke in disappointment to thousands. We be- 
lieve now but for the loss of our dear ram we 
would have had the city back long ago, though 
croakers cry, ** Never again; except by treaty.*' 
I was among those croakers at first. I felt 
we could never get it back the sad ignomin- 
ious day it fell, but I grew into a more 
hopeful state after awhile and joined with some 
faith the whispering conclaves. How often we 
imagined we heard the guns at the Fort, I could 
not at this time safely determine, but their attack 
and fall were often talked over enough in the dim 
twilight to stir my blood. What deeds of valor 
and devotion were we not to perform. We partly 




MRS. R. A. WILKINSON 

Of "Pointe Celeste" plantation, Louisiana 



JOUBNAL OF JULIA LE GRAND 193 

rose from the sluggish channel in which sorrow 
had made us float so long. I do not think that 
either Gin or myself would fear in battle — we are 
too sad-hearted. The town is in Federal hands 
still, but after long silence on this momentous 
topic, men and women begin again to whisper of 
attack. General Banks, Farragut and fleet have 
left for Baton Eouge to aid the attack at Port 
Hudson. This place is now poorly defended, and 
we might take it if the 290 and Oreta were here. 
I would rather get it by treaty, oh, so much — 
there would be no blood shed then, but if I say 
so before Mrs. Norton it raises a perfect storm. 
I would fight as bravely as she, if the city is at- 
tacked and needs women's help, but I cannot help 
nourishing a hope that the fights at all the differ- 
ent points may be delayed until some decision is 
arrived at. in Congress, which will leave us a free 
people without further shedding of blood. Why 
desolate more homes; especially why slaughter 
more of these poor wretches, more than half of 
whom are in open insubordination with their own 
authorities, who are deserting to us constantly! 
Bayonets were drawn on the poor fellows who 
refused to embark for the attack on Port Hudson. 
The men do not wish to fight us, they openly say so. 
There are many ways to get together an 
army in any cause — ^many of these men have 
joined for bread. Mrs. Norton wants the negroes 



194 JOURNAL OF JULIA LE GRAND 

all killed, too, ** because they listened to Yankee 
lies/' This is being no greater, wiser or better 
than Wendell Phillips, who wants all slave holders 
killed. What a world this is. The North is hating 
England for her sympathy with ns, and for the 
help she has given us — we are hating her because 
she does not give us recognition, because she did 
not long ago. If the extremists were not held in 
check by a more humane class, the earth would 
soon be depopulated. I hear numbers of humane 
sentiments from true Southern people who would 
fight our enemies bravely, but who do not hate 
them. When Judge Ogden's house was guarded 
he had a fire made in an outhouse for the poor 
desolate-looking fellows to warm themselves by, 
and Mary Ogden gave the sick medicine, toast and 
coffee that she made for them herself. She was 
' ^ too good to be a Rebel, ' ' one poor wretch said — 
the whole family are registered enemies. Saw 
the picture of Mrs. Lieutenant Andrews at Mrs. 
Wilkinson 's. She had it taken with great alacrity 

when Mrs. W asked her. She does not know 

she is to figure in the family annals as the keeper 

of The Female Bastile. Mrs. W still has 

to report herself ; it rained for two days, heavily, 
and she did not go down, and therefore received a 
message from Lieutenant Andrews that if she 
did not report herself before 4 o'clock that day, 
he T^ould send a sergeant after her. Has the 



JOURNAL OF JULIA LE GRAND 195 

world ever seen before a woman on parole! A 
woman, old and delicate., a lady^ wholly uncon- 
nected with politics of any sort, who went over 
the lines because a report of her husband's death 
had reached her, and who returned to her chil- 
dren! Mr. Randolph says 'tis a pity that the 
Confederates take no women prisoners — if they 
did, Mrs. W might he exchanged, 

March 13th [1863]. I have been sick, and am 
nervous, mentally and physically. I am enjoying 
though to-day my first quiet moments for a long 
time. Ginnie and I are alone, as in our own home. 
Mrs. Norton and all have gone to Greenville to 
pass the day with the Ogdens. We told Mary we 
would come another time. Mrs. Norton wanted 
Qs to go ; the more the merrier, she said, but Ginnie 
was sick, a good excuse, for poor Ginnie loves 
quiet better than anything now. 

Indeed we have not been alone together for 
days. The Ogdens, the Harrisons, the Waughs, 
the Randolphs, Mrs. Callender, Mrs. Roselius, and 
ever so many other people have been here and sat 
by my bed and talked and talked and talked. I 
have not that sort of tact which enables one to 
dismiss friends pleasantly — no matter how I feel, I 
must bear it, and Ginnie is like me. We have been 
very, very gloomy and unwell, yet never alone. 
When outside friends go home, Mrs. Norton reads 
in her dreadful style these hateful newspapers 



196 JOURNAL OF JULIA LE GRAND 

aloud. She knows we hate them, **But people 
ought to take interest/' she says; **That is not 
her way'' — ''She don't know how people can do 
so, ' ' and she goes on until we are most distracted. 
Every advertisement, every negro arrest is 
drawled out and stumbled over. She sits in her 
room, has the door opened between us and begins 
before we are dressed in the morning. It is a 
mania with her and we are dying under it. The 
carts passing in front of our room (also cars) 
make it impossible for us to hear clearly, which 
she takes as a great affront. She asks all sorts 
of questions as to what we think the Federals 
will do, and if we are not true prophets in the 
least as well as greatest matters, throws it up 
to us. I get very, very tired of this sort of life, 
and my heart aches to see its effect on Ginnie. 
I would go to Greenville to our friends there, but 
when people are so kind and affectionate as they 
all are, one seems ungrateful not to make some 
effort to be agreeable and lively. Another reason 
too, we cannot leave Mrs. Norton for any length 
of time without quarreling with her. She really 
means to give us no offence; she is kinder to us 
than to others, and as she would insist on know- 
ing why we left her house, we could not tell her 
without a blow up. I hate the eclat of a quarrel ; 
I hate a quarrel itself, and more than all I re- 
member many times when the old lady repressed 



JOUENAL OF JULIA LE GRAND 197 

her naturally high temper, out of kindness and 
respect to us. She is, only, very unlike our- 
selves — not one sentiment or taste have we in 
common, and our constant effort to accommodate 
ourselves to her is killing us by inches. I will 
take poor Ginnie and go for another visit to Green- 
ville soon. The Randolphs, the Harrisons and 
Ogdens all beg us constantly; we see them al- 
most every day. There has been a falling out be- 
tween the Harrisons and the Ogdens — it distresses 
me — they are both kind, good and honorable 
families — we being the confidants of both sides 
see that, misunderstandings and servants^ tales 
have separated them. Once we succeeded in mak- 
ing peace between them, but now the falling out 
has reached the gentlemen of each house; I do 
not hope for any favorable adjustment of things. 
Mrs. Roselius and Mary Waugh — to our 
room — Mary just from a sick-bed, too. Sat till 
the cars bringing Mrs. Norton back. She spent a 
pleasant day and regretted we were not well 
enough to go. The girls sent us much love and 
pressing invitations. The Randolphs and Harri- 
sons live across the street either way from Judge 
Ogden's, so Mrs. Norton made the most of her 
time and paid visits all around. She says every- 
thing looks green and lovely and rather lonely. 
The Yankee tents and flags, uniforms and band- 
playings being missed in a pictorial way, if in no 



198 JOURNAL OF JULIA LE GRAND 



• 



other. The pleasure of going to Greenville is 
destroyed, in a measure, by the disagreements 
among the two families. We, Ginnie and I, do not 
scruple to give them advice and to tell them that 
they are both wrong. I tell them that I expect to 
lose the friendship of both sides, but they say they 
appreciate our feelings perfectly. Mary Harri- 
son and Judge Ogden met here a few days ago — 
the Judge sat in the parlor and Mary came to our 
room — we did not know which side to be the most 
with. Mary was as nervous as possible; thinks 

Judge has grossly insulted her father. We 

know he never meant to insult anybody in his 
life, being the most amiable man of our acquain- 
tance, and the one most easily imposed upon. He 
is indeed a proverb of kindness and patience. 
Jule Ogden and Mary Harrison, too, met here — 
bowed distantly — and had to go down the steps 
together, and to take the three o'clock car to- 
gether, and ride all the way home together; get 
out at the same station together; all without 
speaking. It is very silly, and both sides are 
ashamed. I think the position of Kentucky in this 
war laid the ground-work of the whole affair. 
This State has been freely discussed here and 
freely blamed, and the Harrisons resent all that 
is said against her. They have indeed a morbid 
sensitiveness and love for their old home, and 
they cannot help feeling that people mean to be 



JOURNAL OF JULIA LE GRAND 199 

personal, when they speak of her. This state of 
things induced a suspicious, almost resentful tone 
of feeling which has exaggerated and returned 
unmeant wrongs, and in this way quite a cata- 
logue of offences have been recorded on both 
sides and the old feeling wholly undermined. I 
feel sorry to see a large family of young people 
leave a loved home for any other, especially in 
this country, where State pride and love is so 
predominant. There can never be any National 
feeling in this country — men are willing to sacri- 
fice and die for Native State, and they are prone 
to think it the home and birthplace of every per- 
fection. People, even in transmigratory America, 
can not be transplanted without injury. Even 
if a root is secured in a strange soil, many a deli- 
cate tendril is wounded and lost that would have 
blossomed sweetly in the old. 

I feel sorry for the Harrisons ; they came to Lou- 
isiana just before the war commenced, leaving a 
large circle of friends and acquaintances in Ken- 
tucky. They have led a lonely prison life here 
since the city was captured, while their relatives 
and friends in the old State have been enjoying 
themselves. Mary Harrison's eyes filled with tears 
when she told me of the welcome Kirby Smith had 
had at her aunt's house not long ago. John Mor- 
gan, their pet hero, is an old acquaintance, as other 
Confederate heroes. They warmly espouse the 



200 JOUENAL OF JULIA LE GRAND 



• 



Southern cause. They don*t meet any heroes 
here, poor girls, and never a soldier to whom they 
can say, ^ ' God speed you ! ' ' They were intimates 
and relatives of Henry Clay and other intellectual 
people at home, and consequently feel much cut 
off here as regards society. Having come here at 
an unfortunate time, their beautiful home on the 
railroad is regarded by them as a prison — ugly 
and hateful in their eyes. We, Ginnie and my- 
self, are both border State people, and have the 
position of old Maryland to regret, too. We can 
see much to justify the conduct of the poor border 
States, and I must confess that the people who 
have flocked to take the oath to the United States, 
as they of this city have done, have no right to 
pass such sweeping censures as Maryland and 
Kentucky receive every day. Said Mrs. Brewer 
to me the other evening^ ^'Ah, do you not feel glad 
that you are out of your native State? How 
shamefully she has behaved. ' ' She did not mean 
to be rude. Her husband is a Marylander and was 
present. His father and mother were driven off 
of their farm near Annapolis, as it was needed 
for a Federal camp. He has lost a son and a 
nephew in the Southern service. I told Mrs. 
Brewer that I thought the men of the border 
States who had fought for Southern rights, were 
the real heroes of the war. Others fight for all 
they have in the world — these men lose alL Their 



JOURNAL OF JULIA LE GRAND 201 

States not seceding, they are exiles in purse and 
home. They have not even the common feeling 
of State pride to support them in the burden- 
bearing heat of this war. I was told by a young 
gentleman — an Adam's cavalry man — from near 
Natchez, that he had seen many of the Maryland 
boys while serving in Virginia. ^^They are real 
exiles,'' said he; ''noble, splendid-looking fel- 
lows." Poor old Maryland! I wish no Yankee 
had ever moved within your border; not that I 
hate them so bitterly, but it is too wretched a 
thing to have a divided population. 

Between North and South this war is sectional ; 
in the unhappy border States alone, it i§ civil. Peo- 
ple never know how they act until tried. Two years 
ago the people here could not have been made to 
believe that they, under any circumstances, would 
take an oath to the repudiated authority of the 
United States. After the first blood was shed in 
this war, blood which ''flecked the streets of Bal- 
timore," after the resistance to the first Federal 
troops, was disarmed and put down, an outcry 
went up in New Orleans against Maryland. "She 
had yielded! She was pusillanimous! She was 
willing to see her Southern sisters overrun and 

oppressed! She was mean, contemptible !" 

"Better," said the papers and the people, "better 
had the proud city of Baltimore been razed to the 
ground than to have become what she is." I said 



202 JOURNAL OF JULIA LE GRAND 

so, too ; at least, I felt so then and I feel so now — 
I would rather there should be no Baltimore — so 
long in my memory a sacred spot — now polluted 
by traitor's feet; a Baltimore not true to the 
*'01d Line's fame." I used to love to think how 
much of that dear soil was once the birthright of 
the Croxalls — my mother 's family, and how many 
thousands of dearest memories cluster about that 
splendid domain — Portland Manor — that once 
was ours. It lies not far away from Annapolis, 
now a Federal resting place. Our dear old home, 
our dear old Maryland ! I did not know until this 
revolution how much I loved either. Ah, well, 
here are we, two lonely-hearted women living in 
Louisiana, not bearing transplanting much better 
than the Harrisons, though we went through it 
much earlier when mere children. We are sadder 
than they — we can not, in our unprotected state, 
live in our own house. By the by, I will record it 
here. That house and garden of ours is confis- 
cated, they tell me. If so, Mr. Randolph must 
move out of it and let the Yankees move in. It 
only nearly escaped being made a hospital. I 
am glad we did not take the oath, though. The 
border State people have been very true in this 
respect. *^ Pride or Conscience?" I ask myself. 
Mrs. Brewer, who made that remark about Mary- 
land, took the oath, and when a Federal tried to 
turn her out of her house she said she was a 



JOURNAL OF JULIA LE GRAND 203 

Union woman. The papers and people, who cried 
out, ^* Better had Baltimore been destroyed,'* 
took quite another tone when New Orleans fell. 
Then it was, * * We are a conquered people and we 
must not provoke our invaders.'* When Marshall 
Kane, of Baltimore, was lodged in Fort McHenry 
and poor Thomas .thrown in irons, my heart, it 
seemed, shed tears of blood; people said, ^*The 
pusillanimous Marylanders. " Since that day 
Mayor Monroe has been dragged to Fort Jackson 
in almost a dying condition, and the brave Mum- 
ford, who tore down the first Federal flag raised 
in the city, has been hung, and no man's hand 
was lifted to help him. Indeed there has been 
more individual and collective resistance in Bal- 
timore than in this city which has suffered more 
provocation. Yet people even yet will not make 
allowance for others who yield to bitter circum- 
stance, eveyi as they do 

Maryland, after the seizure and imprison- 
ment of her Legislature, which would have 
carried the State out of the Union, sent other 
members to the Federal Congress. I felt this 
a great disgrace to her, but then New Or- 
leans this winter has shown me how such 
movements can be made. Haus and Flanders, 
of this city, to represent Louisiana; men nobody 
had heard of till this commotion. Had poor old 
Maryland had her ex-Governor Lowe, instead of 



204 JOUENAL OF JULIA LE GRAND 

the serpent Hicks as her ruler, she would have 
been in the field as early as her sister Virginia. 
Together they would have taken sides after their 
peace commissions had failed. Old Virginia was 
for a long time distrusted here. ^'She should 
have been one of the first to have gone out, ' ' peo- 
ple said, but now that she is the battle field, 
bleeding, dismantled and torn, she is loved. For 
my part, I never blamed her. I respected her 
dalliance, her love of the Union, and her earnest 
efforts toward mediation, but when the last failed, 
I knew she was right to sever her old bonds, and 
stand by her Southern sisters, and I knew dear 
old Maryland was wrong. I made some conces- 
sion in my arraigning thoughts, because of her 
geographical position. The broad Potomac di- 
vided her from her friends and the severing 
Chesapeake brought the iron monsters to her 
very door and she had no time to think and pre- 
pare. I will do the people here the justice to say 
that her position has been considered. She has 
been much sympathized with and pitied, and 
^^ Maryland, my Maryland '^ has been sung with 
real and earnest pathos by thousands of Southern 
lips. They thought she was true, that she would 
come with us some day when her chains were 
taken off; they knew that she had helped us and 
that many a Maryland mother had a son to 
mourn, who lay beyond the wide Potomac. After 
Lee's advance, and the battle of Antietam 



JOUENAL OF JULIA LE GRAND 205 

[Sliarpsburg], this feeling changed. Lee was 
certainly unsupported. It was a great blow to 
me. ^ * They should have risen en masse, * ' we said. 
Lee only remained three days, however, and men 
cannot leave homes unprotected so suddenly and 
on such short notice. Had he seized Baltimore; 
had he stayed long enough to ofPer protection to 
those he invited, I believe many would have joined 
him. The young and ardent were already on the 
field and the others required safeguards for their 
families. I wish Lee had never gone to Mary- 
land. It was pleasant to dream of her relief in 
my own way. What sort of a journal is this, I 
wonder ! 

Mrs. Norton met a Confederate soldier in the 
cars the other day; they fell into converse and 
he promised to come to see us all, as he is on 
parole and is allowed the freedom of the city, but 
without his uniform. This creates an unpleasant 
excitement here; unpleasant to Federals, I 
mean — our officers we hear are much sought after 
and are in danger of forming bad habits from too 
much toast-drinking. Mrs. Norton *s soldier ap- 
pointed a day and hour and Mr. Eandolph, Mary 
Harrison, and Mrs. Dameron waited here a long 
time for his lordship, but he did not make his ap- 
pearance. I was sick in bed and Ginnie was 
gloomy, sick and nervous — so I did not regret the 
disappointment for ourselves. 

Mrs. Pinkard has had a message from the Fed- 



206 JOURNAL OF JULIA LE GRAND 



• 



eral authorities that she must either lodge Gen- 
eral Sherman, give up her house, or pay rent for 
it. Cool and insolent! Colonel French lived in 
it and gave it up after Mrs. Pinkard's return 
with reluctance. She had taken the oath and there 
was no excuse. ** Would you have me turn Mrs. 
French into the streets* said he when first ap- 
plied to. Why the last change, I cannot say. 

March 14th [1863]. For the last few days the 
Federal soldiers have been arresting all the 
negroes seen in the streets without passes (given 
out at the Mayor's office. Mayor Miller, formerly 
on General Shepley's staff, and with whom Mrs. 
Norton has the written bet about the fall of Port 
Hudson). General, or Governor, Shepley was 
standing on his (Mrs. Brown's) steps as Mrs. 
Norton passed. She stopped and chatted as 
usual; asked if Port Hudson *4s taken yet.'' 
**I am to drink some of that champagne," said 
he. **You must take it at 7ny house," said she, 
**for I will win it — you will never win it; you 
will never take Port Hudson." The General 
looked very pale ; I expect he thinks so, too. The 
wife of a Yankee who is lodged in a ** captured 
house" at the corner of our square, had a letter 
from her husband a few days ago. He is at Baton 
Rouge, and is to take part in the coming battle. 
**It will be a terrible fight," he writes. Two 
weeks ago she told Mrs. Norton, out of mere 



JOURNAL OF JULIA LE GRAND 207 

bravado and to frighten her, that the Federals 
had surrounded both Vicksburg and Port Hudson 
and that both places were in Federal power. She 
has held levees for the negroes, and has always 
managed to say something disagreeable about our 
defeats somewhere or other, or that Butler would 
soon be back, or something of that sort, whenever 
we passed her door. But a great anxiety has 
taken possession of her; she has ''no one but her 
husband,'^ she says, and indeed we feel sorry for 
the poor thing. Should Port Hudson fall she 
will say all sorts of things as we pass, I know, but 
she is a poor, common creature and is only to be 
pitied. I hope her husband will be spared her; 
also that as many of the soldiers as possible will 
desert to us as have promi&ed to do so. It took 
three regiments to force off one to go to this Port 
Hudson affair. We ** Rebels" have been making 
laughing calculations and trying to work out 
political problems by the rule of three, since this 
event. Specimens: ''If it takes three regiments 
to move one to the scene of action, how many will 
it take to move out Banks* whole army?" "How 
many will it take to make them fight?" and so 
forth. 

Just called out to see Mrs. Wilkinson — not the 
paroled one — she tells me that Mrs. Bowen, the 
wife of a Yankee Colonel, let slip in her converse 
that three Connecticut regiments mutinied and 



208 JOURNAL OF JULIA LE GRAND 

had to be sent liome — officers and men. The rule 
of three still at work. General Sherman asked 
Kate Wilkinson why she was so anxious to go 
over the lines. *^0h, General, I am so tired here, 
and I do so long for some fresh Confederate air.'* 
The General smiled and said, *'Well, stay, and 
maybe you will have some good Confederate air 
here soon before long.'^ We wonder what he 
meant by that. General Sherman has advised 
Mrs. Wilkinson not to go yet as there will be 
danger in the transfer. **Wait,'' said he smil- 
ingly, * ^ and perhaps we will send you all the way 
to Vicksburg.'' ^'I have heard something of go- 
ing that way," returned Mrs. Wilkinson, ^^but 
under our own flag.'^ The ^' Rebel" ram Missouri 
has run the gauntlet out of the Yazoo where she 
was built, and is safe at Vicksburg. Farragut and 
Banks are both at Baton Rouge. Word has been 
received here, it is said, that fighting has com- 
menced at Port Hudson. The few Federals who 
are left here keep up much journeying to and 
fro. They are riding furiously up and down 
the street and the jingling of their swords is 
sounding in our ears all day long as they pass 
our door. I can nbt say that their step is martial, 
or in the cavalier style. They ride, indeed, 
infamously in two ways — in the first place they 
have stolen every horse in town, even ladies' 
carriage horses and those from doctors ' buggies ; 



JOURNAL OF JULIA LE GRAND 209 

in the next, they sit on them in the most awkward 
style, bumping np and down, laboring, appar- 
ently, more than the horses. They sit back pomp- 
ously, and no doubt think that we admire them 
wonderfully. The Indimiola, which we captured 
from the Federals, was reported lost. Indeed, an 
*^ extra'' informed us that a strange vessel went 
steaming past the batteries at Vicksburg while 
our people were raising the Indianola (which had 
been sunk in the capture), whereupon our Con- 
federate boats took alarm and destroyed the half- 
raised vessel. I thought it queer that two Con- 
federate steamers would run from one Yankee 
craft, and now we hear that the whole thing was 
a ruse, and that the Indianola is not only raised, 
but in good fighting order, having lost in the sub- 
merging but two guns. 

We are getting quite a navy — all captured; 
not one had we with which to begin. When 
the Queen of the West passed Vicksburg, she 
ruled, indeed, like a queen over the world 
of waters, which lie between Port Hudson 
and Vicksburg, thus locking up our Texas 
and Red River trade, cutting off our army sup- 
plies. The Federals were jubilant over her pass- 
ing, but she soon fell after a short and inglorious 
career, and a still more inglorious struggle. She 
was destroyed by the Red River batteries and de- 
serted by her officers. She floats a new, and I 



210 JOURNAL OF JULIA LE GRAND 

hope to high Heaven, what is to ever be a worthier 
flag, and her first exploit under it, was to make 
another Federal bulwark succumb. These iron 
monsters which were soon to make an end of ^'the 
rebellion'' are fast falling into our hands, and 
besides, we have some trusty ones of our own 
building. We Confederate women are forever 
counting them in our hearts and on our fingers. 
They are to open the prison doors of New Or- 
leans. We have three building up the Yazoo; 
one, the Missouri, has run the gauntlet, and we 
have seven building at Mobile. In two months 
we can take this city back. Mrs. Norton is read- 
ing out loud — she sees badly — stumbles, I cannot 
make out what she means, or what I mean myself. 
I hope my Edith, when she reads this, will take 
into consideration her auntie's trials and never 
feel tempted to scrawl out such a production 
herself. 

Sunday, March 15th [1863]. Mrs. Dameron's 
little ones came over to breakfast. I predict that 
Mary Lu, or Yete, as she is called, will one day 
make a sweet, pretty and ingenuous woman. She 
is shy now, not demonstrative — not half so much 
noticed and petted as her sister Sydney. The 
latter is very communicative — she is very pretty, 
a^id as much at her ease as a grown woman and 
quite as worldly-minded and fond of show as 
some of them. She will be a coquette, I fancy, 



JOURNAL OF JULIA LE GRAND 211 

and will give her good, religious papa the heart- 
ache often. Mrs. Dameron with all the children 
(the baby born the night the city fell, while the 
Yankee gunboats were steaming up the river; a 
beautiful boy who has never yet seen his papa) 
passed yesterday with us, as did also Mrs. White. 
Courtnay, a fine boy whom they call Chopper (?), 
The little folk were quite noisy, and their peace- 
ful-minded mother looked as well, calm and con- 
tented as if all the world were so, too. She is so 
honest-minded, so true, innocent and unworldly, 
that one cannot respect her too highly. She has 
a kind, good husband — but he went out with the 
Confederate guards, when General Soule carried 
them off and has not been back since. She hears 
often by what we ^^ Rebels'' call the '^under- 
ground railroad,'' and the ''grapevine tele- 
graph." He is not in the army, but in the 
Commissary Department. His friend, Mr. Broad- 
well (Colonel, they call him, though not in 
service), being a sort of head man in Jackson — 

he. Colonel B , being a friend of President 

Davis, and in great trust with him, can procure 
favors for his friends. I do not think they will 
ever fall on one more worthy than Mr. Dameron— 
a good husband, son and brother. Mr. Broadwell 
was quite a neighborhood card when in the city — 
he is very rich, very useful to the Government, 



212 JOURNAL OF JULIA LE GRAND 

and I believe is making a still greater fortune 
now. He is honest, however, and his word is law, 
they say, in Jackson, now a military depot. He 
is awfully uninteresting — and I believe would be 
literally the death of me were I forced to enter- 
tain him long at a time. Why are useful people 
often so uninteresting! This man is ^^ strong and 
healthy,'' I say, ^'and ought to be in the field 
where so many of our delicate brothers are risk- 
ing health and losing fortune." Mr. B bears 

the title of Colonel. Then why is he in the Com- 
missary Department? 

To-day I thought I would not go to church, but 
stay at Jiome and have a quiet time. Mary Ogden 
came first — I was glad to see her; she loves us 
and we love her. Then came Mrs. Dameron ; then 
Mrs. Roselius, after she left, Mary Ogden, who 
had gone out, came back to dinner. She left on the 
three o'clock car. Doctor Fenner then arrived. 
Then Mrs. Norton read aloud out of neivspapers, 
and Ginnie laid down her book with a sigh — 
and I, how can I possibly string together a sensi- 
ble sentence ! Mrs. White and Mrs. Dameron are 
in the other room now, if no one comes after 

them. I will record what Mary told me 

in the greatest secrecy. I fear to write it. If 
anything should happen, will I have time to burn 
this record! A spy of Stonewall Jackson's has 
been in this town — within this week — being 



JOURNAL OF JULIA LE GEAND 213 

known to ; has been at his house. 

He has worn the Federal uniform during his stay 
and has taken away all necessary information. 
This man is no impostor, having been seen by 

in Virginia last summer — he is the 

Captain in which ^s son has been first 

lieutenant since this young man has been on 
detached service. The spy is well known to 

and they therefore believe what he 

says. He brings the astounding intelligence that 
Stonewall Jackson is now at Pontchatoula dis- 
guised as a IV ag oner! He says that when he met 
him he called him General, whereupon Stonewall 
disclaimed the honor. *^You can not deceive me, 
General, ' ' said he, ^ ' I served under you too long. ' ^ 
He was after this appointed spy. This city is to 
be taken back before long, unless, indeed, we 
should be beaten in the coming contests of Port 
Hudson and Vicksburg. Mary imparted this in- 
formation almost with fear and trembling to us 
and made us promise most sacredly to not even 
whisper or look it to another. Ginnie and myself 
are the only two in all the world that she would 
even whisper it to, she says. Her father would be 
half crazy if he knew anyone else knew of this 
visit. I have heard so much of Confederate at- 
tacks on this place, that such reports do not excite 
me now. This young man's story I would doubt 
altogether if had not known him and 



214 JOURNAL OF JULIA LE GRAND 

seen him in service in Virginia. Time will prove. 
I wish I could realize him and what he says as 
Mary does. There are many rumors of Stone- 
wall's being outside somewhere near. One reli- 
able ''lady'' knows from a ''reliable" gentleman 
that he is within five miles of the city and bent 
on its attack. Mr. Randolph says he heard two 
Federals in the car say, "Well, who knows that 
that old Stonewall won't burst in on this city 
any day. Well, well, we must admit that Stone- 
wall and Longstreet are two powerful men. dow- 
erf ul men ! ' ' 

Why should Jackson be in disguise, when 
his very name at Port Hudson would make 
our army there invincible? I can offer no solu- 
tion but this : if it should be known in Virginia, 
the effect on our army there might be dispiriting. 
He is so idolized by his men and so feared by the 
enemy. Even the cold Englishman, whose account 
of this hero I read a few days ago, says that he 
could be led anywhere under the inspiring influ- 
ence of two such men as Lee and Stonewall Jack- 
son. I am so glad that dear Claude's short mili- 
tary career was passed under him. Claude was 
one of the famous "Foot Cavalry" until he left 
his poor arm at Port Republic. Taylor's Brigade, 
Harry Hays and the Seventh Regiment Crescent 
Rifles are names doubly dear for Claude's sake. 
I have now in my desk a letter of Claude's — of 



JOURNAL OF JULIA LE GRAND 215 

last year — written in pencil on a cartridge box — 
which says: ^*We have just given Banks a com- 
plete whipping — / expect we have done rather a 
brilliant thing. ^ ' Banks will get another whipping 
soon, in a few days, we think, though the Federals 
have it reported that Port Hudson has already 
been evacuated by our troops — frightened at their 
approach, perhaps. 'Tis said by our people that 
fighting is going on to-day. (N. B. — Mrs. Norton 
reading Bible aloud.) We have just held a dis- 
cussion — we have expressed a wish that we might 
get this place by treaty — this humane desire gives 

offence to Mrs. N . She ' ' wants them killed. * ' 

She wants to *^hear the cannon — let 'em come 
from France or wherever they will. ' ' If a forcible 
entry of this town will help to hasten the end of 
this terrible war, I will be glad to see it — and that 
speedily — but if our successes which have gained 
us the admiration of the world, could only buy 
our freedom without more bloodshed, would it 
not be better ! Oh, I long, long to see this cruel 
war over ! I do not like to even hear of the suffer- 
ings our enemies endure. The meeting of the two 
huge armies now on the river, bent on annihilat- 
ing each other is a terrible matter to think of. It 
seems to me I have no longer any faith in civiliza- 
tion, learning, religion — anything good. (If I 
should write down a scrap of the Bible here, do 
not let it astonish you, my little niece — your 



216 JOURNAL OF JULIA LE GRAND 

auntie is very seldom alone. Nobody means to 
inflict any ill npon her, but she is talked to, or 
read to, almost every minute in the day from 
before breakfast to bed time.) Who knows what 
a fine journal I might not have written you if I 
had had the health and spirits to go about much, 
and had the privacy in which to record what I 
heard. 

Mrs. Norton went yesterday to get papers for 
her negroes, according to Federal command — was 
quite astonished to be asked if she had taken the 
oath. In giving answer, she also managed to give 
offence to the official, who rudely told her to 
*^Hush," whereupon she told him she would talk 
as much as she pleased in spite of all the Federals 
in New Orleans and not take the oath either. The 
Federal said he didn't care a damn whether she 
took the oath or not. She then made a very proper 
answer — **You have proved a gentleman of the 
first stamp, sir,'' said she, '^m swearing at an old 
lady; a very fine gentleman indeed." He was 
then silent and ashamed. Mrs. Dameron, Mrs. 
Doctor Stille and Mrs. Wells all went to the same 
place to get papers for their servants and were 
treated very politely. To those who had not 
taken the oath he expressed great regret, that he 
was compelled not to issue passes for servants 
belonging to disloyal people. Such servants are 



JOURNAL OF JULIA LE GRAND 217 

all caught up and forced by Federal soldiers to 
work on the fortifications and plantations. I pity 
poor Julie Ann ; I wonder what death she will die ! 
She has never known real hardship. This step 
of the authorities here has given the negroes a 
great blow. So much for Federal philanthropy! 
Another instance of it. The Yankee Era said 
yesterday that the Indianola before her capture 
by the Confederates had been dispatched to de- 
stroy the cotton and plantation of Jeff Davis and 
his brother and to bring off all the male slaves — 
the male slaves, philanthropy! We hear con- 
stantly of negroes who are brought away un- 
willingly from their home comforts and their 
masters — and not infrequently are these poor 
people robbed of all they have by their pretended 
saviors. Mrs. Wilkinson's old man was robbed 
on his plantation of his watch and money, and 
another of four hundred dollars, which had been 
hoarded up for a long time. It's bad enough for 
a soldier to steal chickens and pigs, yet I have in 
some sort a sympathy for this sort of outrage, but 
when I think of how these pretended civilizers 
and benefactors have ransacked this town for fine 
linen and silver spoons — letting not even negroes 
escape — ^^I feel glad enough to have ceased calling 
Federal soldiers brothers and countrymen. The 
dear old Union has ceased to be dear to all who 
would have once died for it. Its defenders are not 



218 JOUENAL OF JULIA LE GRAND 

knights or cavaliers, but robbers. I am growing 
each day fonder of our new flag. I did not love it 
at first — but my heart was thrilled at the accounts 
of our gallant Southern heroes. I am proud to 
hear what brave and honorable gentlemen they 
are, though too often clothed in homespun and 
too often shoeless. 

Read an account in the New York World 
of the sinking of the Ratter as by the Ala- 
bama. It is given out by the officers of the 
Hatteras on their return to New York. The short 
conflict was thrillingly interesting. I fancy I can 
hear Semmes call out, ^'Do you want assistance T' 
to the sinking crew — and the awful moments that 
followed the inquiry. The paper says, *^ Every 
comfort was provided for both officers and men'* 
on board the Alabama, and every attention was 
paid to the littlest wants of the prisoners. 
**Cots were erected on the spar deck for the 
wounded in order to give them fresh air, and the 
surgeon of the Alabama extended every facility 
in their power, furnishing all sorts of medicinal 
stores for the use of the wounded. A guard was 
placed round the sick and wounded, and all on 
board prohibited from making a noise. Some of 
the Rebel officers gave up their sleeping accom- 
modations; treated them with the utmost cour- 
tesy and consideration. ' ' In the Yucatan channel 
the Alabama ran up to a strange vessel which they 



JOURNAL OP JULIA LE GRAND 219 

ascertained to be English. The Confederate flag 
was then hoisted and the English vessel dipped her 
colors three times in token of respect. At Port 
Royal many British residents and others came on 
board greeting the officers of the 290 warmly — 
^'We are glad to see you; our whole hearts are 
with you.'' Handshakings and congratulations 
were exchanged all around and the Southern Con- 
federacy and its representatives were exalted to 
the skies. Her Brittanic Majesty's steamer Grey- 
hound was in port, and when it was known on 
board this vessel that the Alabama was there, it 
was proposed to greet her with *^ Dixie Land" 
and the band struck up. Hearing this air, Semmes 
remarked to some of the Union officers, '^Do you 
hear that greeting to the lone wanderer of the 
seas I That is what we hear everywhere." The 
English and other visitors on board the Alabama 
spoke contemptuously of the Yankees, and the 
Yankee Government before the Union prisoners. 
^ * Contemptible Yankees," was their mildest ap- 
pellation. This, I think, was mean. The feelings 
of the unfortunate should never be wounded. The 
officers of the Hatteras had only done their duty. 
I am glad that on the Alabama and our other war 
vessels, that prisoners are treated with respect 
and kindness. Such things are the triumphs of 
civilization. 

The New York papers are indignant at the 



220 JOURNAL OF JULIA LE GRAND 

sympathy we receive. Indeed, it is wonder- 
ful how our young Confederacy has sustained 
itself with a new and untried government ; a vol- 
unteer army comprised of men unused to hard- 
ship or discipline; many of them high-blooded 
young fellows who cannot be prone to bear 
meekly the harshness of officers ; with ports block- 
aded; shut out from not only comforts — but 
needs; badly clad; poorly armed and coarsely 
fed; cut off from all United States natural re- 
sources; without navy or arsenal — ^yet have we 
defied the enemy and preserved our border line 
almost unbroken. These are triumphs indeed, 
and it is a grand thing to feel that our country- 
men are endowed with faculties which ripen un- 
der misfortune and trial, with an enthusiasm 
which ennobles their deeds, and a courage which 
is the best of foundations both for national and 
social character. But, alas ! will not this South- 
ern Confederacy be torn asunder sometime as the 
once sacred Union now is ! I want to love all the 
States with the same love. I used to honor all 
American soil from Maine to Georgia. I have 
had a great blow in the severing of the old States 
and it seems to me that the security has gone from 
all things. No Constitution made by man could 
be better or nobler than that our old fathers 
framed — yet how was it trampled on ! There will 
not be, I fear, in future years any better security 



JOURNAL OF JULIA LE GRAND 221 

against the machinations of bad politicians than 
there has been in the present time, and here 
among us may arise some other Lincoln-like 
demagogue to whom our people will yield their 
liberties and self-respect as the Northern people 
have yielded theirs. The separation of States 
and the blood shedding and suffering of a people 
will be the consequence. Texas, I fear, will cer- 
tainly form a republic of her own. There are 
enough of Texan hearts still beating who re- 
gretted the old Union with the United States, 
though no soldiers have borne more nobly the 
arms of the Confederacy with honor than those 
of Texas. They have been distinguished on every 
field. Talking of Texas stirs in my heart the 
ever-longing to see my loved ones there. My 
sister and her dear little ones; my brothers — 
more especially poor, wounded Claude. No letter 
or word can reach us from there. I fear my many 
efforts to smuggle scraps of paper through to 
them have failed. I have a spool of cotton in 
which I propose to send a few lines when the 
"Wilkinsons go, but they will wait now I suppose 
until Port Hudson falls or is pronounced im- 
pregnable. 

v While I was sick Mrs. Roselius brought 
over a photograph of a large picture painted 
here last summer in great secrecy. It was 
to be sent to Europe to give an idea to the 



222 JOUENAL OF JULIA LE GRAND 



a 



people there what Butler was doing in tMs con- 
quered city. While Butler was here he seemed 
almost insane on the subject of enriching himself. 
He was not content in robbing people of their 
wealth and women of their jewels and silver; he 
opened several graves, supposing that gold had 
been hidden in them. It was thought that he was 
led on to these searches by the reports of negroes. 
It is well known here that he opened the grave of 
our well-loved hero, Sydney A. Johnston (killed 
at Shiloh). This picture, therefore, represents 
a graveyard, with the inscription on several 
tombs very distinct — Sydney A. Johnston, Charles 
Dreux and the Washington Artillery. On the 
steps of one of the tombs sits, with back erect, a 
huge and hideous hyena, with Butler's head. A 
skull and several bones lie near. The effect is 
sickening and appalling. When I looked at it the 
same sick feeling came over me of dread and 
horror that I had felt the day that the wretched 
thing was done — when Mrs. Brown came up and 
whispered what Butler was doing and whom he 
had last seized, and a creeping horror made us all 
feel the power and wickedness of the wretch to 
whom we had yielded the city. Over this picture 
appear the words, *^ Great Federal Menagerie 
now on exhibition, ' ' and beneath, ^^The Great 
Massachusetts Hyena — true to his traditional 
instincts, he violates the Grave. '* It would have 



JOURNAL OF JULIA LE GRAND 223 

been death last summer to have been caught 
painting this picture as it would have been to 
have been known to know anything about it; Mrs. 
Brown having whispered it to us, though not to 
her mother. I never saw it until Mrs. Roselius 
brought it over — she seemed quite astonished to 
hear we knew anything of it. This picture on a 
large scale, exhibited over the civilized world 
would be certainly a greater though more refined 
punishment than hanging or tearing to pieces by 
a mob would be for Butler, with which he is so 
often threatened in private conversation. I do 
not like violent measures of any sort which inflict 
physical torture, but I do think that a wretch like 
Benjamin Butler should be held up to the execra- 
tion of the entire civilized world. Such rebukes 
must turn the most hardened villain 's eye inward, 
and moreover they act wholesomely on others. 
There should be no revenge in punishment in a 
civilized society; punishments should be admin- 
istered for their effect merely for prevention of 
crimes. 

Mrs. Wells has paid us a visit. Reports that 
Farragut has passed by Port Hudson. Great 
rejoicing among the Yankees. Mrs. Wells, who 
has been on a long visit to Mrs. Montgomery, has 
told us so much of the quiet charities done by 
both Mrs. Montgomery and the Judge. I was 
glad to hear it, as they are very rich and as they 



224 JOURNAL OF JULIA LE GRAND 

entertain but little, are thought mean generally. 
They are very kind to Confederate soldiers, tak- 
ing them in, nursing them, clothing them and 
giving them money. People never have any right 
to pronounce on human character, at least until 
it has been brought under close inspection. So 
many are overrated because of some manner that 
may be entirely superficial and deceptive as to 
the character it conceals. Mrs. Norton has been 
down town — ^brings the Yankee Era. Farragut 
has passed with two vessels, the flagship Hart- 
ford and one other. The Mississippi was de- 
stroyed by our batteries — thirty men killed. 
Farragut is now expected to be between two fires 
now that he is separated from the rest of his 
fleet. His position seems dangerous to us — 
flanked on one side by Port Hudson and on the 
other by Vicksburg, and a bold report that he 
has been captured, is already out. Mr. Dudley 
was up this afternoon ; I was making a sack and 
made Ginnie go out. It is wrong for us to seclude 
ourselves as we do, but oh, when one feels 
wretched, anxious and lonely as I do, how can I 
wish for anything but solitude. Other people 
seem to be able to throw off their grief by merely 
meeting and chatting about it. Mrs. Dameron 
and Mrs. Norton received letters this afternoon. 
All are well outside the lines. Mary Lou Harri- 
son wrote to her grandma, so also Charley. They 



JOURNAL OF JULIA LE GRAND 225 

have not heard from Texas — the mails being 
broken up. Charley says that he sent the letter 
I sent him to Claude — I suppose by Mr. Riley, 
who is about to return to Galveston where his 
father is stationed. I feel so dreadfully being 
thus cut off from all I love. Mrs. Roselius came 
in this evening, so did Mrs. Wliite and Mrs. 
Dameron. I walked a little way home with the 
two latter, after shutting myself up all day long. 
Mrs. Roselius promised to get me one of the 
pictures of Butler as hyena. I should like to have 
the large oil painting. 



V. 

March 17— March 30, 1863. 

Tuesday, March 17th [1863]. Eose this morn- 
ing feeling very badly. Coughed a great deal 
last night. Slept but little, but in the short in- 
terval dreamed so unhappily that Ginnie awoke 
me twice, after my having cried out. I was 
among crowds of people, it seemed, with a heavy 
weight upon my heart. I was traveling on an 
immense iron steamer — saw a boy fall over and 
drown, whereupon I screamed and awoke. After 
this I could not sleep. Listened long to see if I 
could hear the guns at Port Hudson. For several 
nights the firing has been heard by some people. 
At Greenville Judge Ogden, who was here yester- 
day, heard them at four o'clock in the morning, 
distinctly; he got up and waked the girls, who 
also heard them. The Judge has heard that his 
son Billy has come to Mississippi from Virginia. 
He can not tell whether on furlough or with the 
army. It is reported the 7th Regiment, Crescent 
Rifles, is outside with Col. Harry Hays and the 
great Stonewall. These are times of great ex- 
citement. This seems to us all the crisis of the 
struggle. If we are successful in the two coming 
engagements we hope to have peace at once. If 

227 



228 JOURNAL OF JULIA LE GRAND 

the North fails to open the Mississippi to the 
Western people and its ports to the world, it is 
thought that the war must be abandoned. Heaven 
knows — the people of the North seem demented to 
me. That they should feel a wild regret for the 
loss of the Southern States, after haying goaded 
them into resistance, seems natural enough, but 
that they should think that war and bloodshed 
will restore the Union, seems but a fanatical 
dream. No one more sincerely mourned the 
tTmon than nlyself , but to me the separation of 
the States was the blow. There would be no 
?>eai/i^ in union now. And we have too much 
dear blood to remember now, if not to revenge, 
ever to be able to go back now. Ah, if Vallandig- 
hain had only been president instead of Lincoln! 
Perhaps these things are all intended — who can 
tett.! ' trhe existence or non-existence of a nation 
cannot be disriBgarded by the Higher Intelligence. 
(Mrs. Roselius would regard this expression as a 
proof of my having gone through a course of 
infidel reading— she came to this conclusion the 
other day when she heard me use the term First 
Cause,) 

The black people in the city have met with 
the most dreadful blow at the hands of their 
Yankee friends. These poor people have been 
misled by every wile and persuaded to leave their 
owners and even in miahy instances to be insolent 



JOURNAL OF JULIA LE GRAND 229 

to them. I know of a number of instances where 
they have been promised by the Yankees freedom, 
riches, free markets, a continual basking in the 
sun, places in the Legislative Halls, possession of 
white people 's houses, and a great deal more ; of 
course, these infinite temptations have proved too 
much for them — they have gone over in numbers 
to the Yankees, insulting white people in the 
streets and in houses. They have been protected 
by Yankee courts here, both in murder and rob- 
bery. And after all this they are being picked up> 
singly and collectively and driven by Yankee 
bayonets to the plantations, where they are toi 
work or be shot down. All servants who have; 
not passes given them by the Yankee authorities^ 
are to be disposed of in this way — and as no pass^ 
ife granted to any owner who has not taken the' 
oath, a terrible scene of confusion is at work. 
These Yankees pretend that they have^ comi^-'t;o 
restore civilization and justice to this benighted^ 
Southern land and assume in all their printed 
work a vast philanthropic sympathy for the op- 
pressed race; never since the Southern peopM 
have owned slaves has the separation of families:^ 
been carried on on as large scale as now. Indeed 
negroes have been more protected from separa- 
tion than white people until now. To-day from 
forty to fifty colored women, picked up without 
notification on the streets, were driven at the 



230 JOUENAL OF JULIA LE GRAND 

point of Yankee bayonets on a boat and taken to 
a plantation. Yankee soldiers seize those even 
who are with their own mistresses, unless they 
have Yankee passes. ''Have you a pass?'' is the 
question, and if the victim is not so protected, 
' ' Fall into line then, ' ' is the response. Among all 
the crimes Yankee writers have heaped upon us, 
this cannot be enumerated. Mary, Mrs. Norton's 
woman, came to us just now; she is very uneasy 
about her young daughter Emma, who is hired 
out. She fears the Yankees will take her off. 
Indeed, she fears to be taken, too, as she can get 
no pass, and some houses even have been entered 
by the soldiers. The insolent negroes who have 
been boasting of Yankee support are very much 
crest-fallen and ashamed. One of Mrs. Roselius's 
threatened to have a gentleman arrested last 
week ; this week she is powerless. 

Mary Ogden just in from Greenville — full 
of news and excited. ''It was the Alba- 
tross that passed the batteries" and was 
very much injured — so was the Hartford. 
Both injured and between two fires. Farragut, 
they say, has pronounced the attack useless, but 
makes it because ordered to do so. I really do not 
suppose he has opened his mouth upon the sub- 
ject. He is a brave man, this much we all accord 
him. His family live here, and he was educated, 
it is said, by one of the charitable institutions of 



JOURNAL OF JULIA LE GRAND 231 

this city. His relatives would not receive him 
after the city fell, and when the shelling of the 
city was imminent, he sent word that he would 
protect them and received in answer that they 
would not accept his protection. It was reported 
at the time that his mother was here, but that was 
untrue; she is dead. I remember laughing at 
the excited manner in which Martine Ogden ex- 
claimed that the city would be safe. ^^For surely,** 
said she, ^'he won't shell his mother.** 

The Era is filled with insolent braggadocio be- 
cause Farragut has passed — even in crippled 
condition. The Yankees have called their mili- 
tary collection in all quarters — '^The vast 
Anaconda,** which is ^Ho crush the rebellion.** 
We think that Farragut *s being separated from 
the fleet by powerful batteries looks very much as 
if the head of the water snake was severed from 
its body. He said that his ship should pass, 
though that should be the only one. The town 
is all excitement — the Yankees here expect an 
attack. Indeed, if possible, we should make it — 
the enemy would then have to capitulate. The 
forts below we could take later. Every hour 
brings its report. Indeed, it is an awful time, 
fraught as it is with death and ruin to the major- 
ity. The Yankee woman at the corner is in much 
trouble; we think that she has heard no hopeful 
news from Baton Rouge. She is all packed to 



232 JOURNAL OF JULIA LE GRAND 

start somewhere at a moment's notice. Mary 
Ogden took dinner and passed the afternoon with 
ns. She had been out in the morning to look up 
some Mrs. Colonel Pinckney, who is just in from 
the Confederacy, and knows her brother in the 
army. This lady reports everything going on 
WBlfcoMside. She passed through Baton Rouge. 
On the way she fell in with many Federal sol- 
diers-^they volunteered conversation and told 
her a good deal. She is a daughter of an officer 
in the old United States ' atmy, and was brought 
up ill garrison circles, so I presume she knew 
how to talk to military folk. She learned that the 
soldiers at Baton Rouge were bent on not fight- 
ing-^that they were going otei* to us at the fir^ 
opportunity. Vicksburg and Jackson are filled 
with officers and men who have resigned the Fed- 
eral service. This seems almost incredible, but 
this war is being held now as both useless, sense-r 
less and wicked. Thousands of these soldiers say 
they do not hate Southern people and that they 
want tp live apaong them. Two officers left the 
steamer Mississippi and changed their uniform 
before that unfortunate vessel left this city.-ofri'ifi 
Late in the evening I took a walk and stopped at 
Doctor Glenn's — found Sarah in bed with a room- 
ful of ladies. Her baby is nine days old — called 
*' Robert Lee,'' after our great General. Mrs. 



JOURNAL OF JULIA LE GRAND 233 

Pritchard and her daughter were there and told 
me much of what these Federals are doing in the 
city. If the United States had chosen to war 
against the Union, instead of for it, she could not 
have chosen better people for her service. 'Three 
ladies of Mrs. Pritchard 's acquaintance were ar- 
rested not long ago and thrown into a room filled 
with all sorts of horrid people — drunken soldiers 
and half-dressed ones — for having been singing 
**The Bonnie Blue Flag'' in their own houses -^iih. 
some officers from the British ship. Another lady 
giving an entertainment to some British officers in 
her own home had it forcibly entered and waa 
threatened with a search for flags while the com- 
pany were present. These disgraceful things 
often happen. Not very long ago an officer rode 
in among the flowers in Mrs. Budike's yard, be- 
cause a child was singing ^^The Bonnie Blue 
Flag'' — he had the lady called to the balcony, and 
told her that it was ^^a pity that United States 
officers who had worked hard all day could not 
take a ride for recreation without being insulted 
by that Rebel song." Was there ever such non- 
sense and such a want of pride and dignity. I'm 
afraid that Mrs. Stewart's daughters next door 
will be arrested some day, for their piano and 
mingled voices are continually doing duty to that 
contraband ditty. A gentleman of Mrs. Pritch- 
ard 's acquaintance has been arrested — he asked 



234 JOURNAL OF JULIA LE GRAND 

Mayor Miller wherefore, ^^For hanging out a 
Confederate flag/' said he. ^'I know the gentle- 
man," said Mrs. Pritchard, ^^and I am sure he 
did no such foolhardy a thing — he would not be 
guilty of such silly hardihood.'' ^'Oh, well, then," 
returned this easy-natured upstart, ^'he must 
have had one somewhere in his house, and besides 
he has been circulating these obnoxious poems," 
meaning the ''Battle of the Handkerchiefs" and 
a prose article purporting to be an official report 
of one of Banks' men. The town is flooded with 
these articles — some of them very cutting. The 
Federals can not find out their authors or the 
place of their publishing. 

Mrs. Callender has just been in; says she is 
going to the funeral of Commander Cummings, 
who was killed up the river when Farragut 
passed. We told her she would be taken for one 
of the mourners. She laughed. Colonel Clarke, 
the only gentleman among the Federals, has been 
wounded, some say seriously; his death is even 
reported. There appears to be much regret for 
him among our people, and if he is brought here 
our women intend to do all in their power for 
him, to show their grateful distinction between 
himself and others. 

March 21st [1863]. I have not written, because 
Ginnie has been sick, and I have been far from 
well, and nothing has appeared worthy of record. 



JOUENAL OF JULIA LE GRAND 235 

Thousands of rumors are floating, and all our 
conversation is made up of a record of them. 
Mary Ogden and Jule were down again from 
Greenville, to gather as much excitement as pos- 
sible. The voice which proclaims the daily, 
hourly coming of the Confederates is swelling 
louder. We whisper (not so softly as when But- 
ler was here) and tell what Mrs. This One said, 
and Mrs. The Other One has heard, and feed our- 
selves with hope that we are soon to take New 
Orleans back; break our chains; go where we 
please, and finish the war. I told Mr. Randolph, 
though, this morning, that I did not intend to 
grow the least excited on the subject, as I did 
last summer, and that I never would believe any- 
thing until I heard the cannon. A very loud one 
was fired near us yesterday, and for one moment 
my heart leaped up. For the first time in a long 
series of months I would be glad to hear of an 
attack on this city. Now the attack, the taking 
and the holding seem natural enough and easy to 
do. The city is poorly defended now, and we 
have captured quite a show of a navy from the 
enemy. The Indianola is said to be all safe 
by those coming in. It is reported that Far- 
ragut's vessel and the one that passed the bat- 
teries with her, has been captured above Baton 
Rouge. "We know that Banks has had to fall 
back upon that place, after having made an ad- 



236 JOUENAL OF JULIA LE GRAND 

vanee. 'Tis said that we will attack him there ;r 
some say that we have already done so. Reports 
of wounded and killed vary — some say 1,700 ; 
others 8,000. Forty ambulances with wounded 
have been brought here, though these are said to 
have come from WeitzePs command, which is 
somewhere in the LaFourche country. One am- 
bulance has just passed here, followed by two 
vehicles containing women and children. One of 
the women in a long sun-bonnet was bending over 
as if weeping; some soldier who enlisted here 
''for his thirteen dollars a month and grub,'* 
perhaps. While at Greenville I saw two ambu- 
lances with dead bodies in them. From one the. 
sti:ff f eet and legs stuck out at one end; the shoes ^^ 
were still on and the blue uniform, which we have 
learned to hate so. This was a dreadful sight to 
me; how can one survive the horrors of a battle- 
field! Mrs. Waugh has heard that her son Char- 
ley is at Tangipaho — a sort of camp of deten- 
tion and instruction about thirty miles from here. 
He is in Breckinridge's Division, and loves his 
old commander so much that he would never have 
joined any other when he returned from his pa- 
role here; we therefore infer that Charley Lord 
is with Breckinridge at Tangipaho, and that the 
Confederates are really near here and thinking 
of coming in. These are the straws to which we 
cling. Mrs. Waugh has also heard from her son 



JOURNAL OF JULIA LE GRAND 237 

Arthur; that he is at Tangipaho; why are these 
veterans of at least twenty battle-fields M ai camp 
of instruction so near US f ::• ■ ,,; 

-gx Letters from Charley Chilton say that Billy 
Ogden (who was stationed when last we 
heard at Fredericksburg) is also in Hinds 
county; so is Sydney Harrison, his cousin. 
Charley cannot tell us what all these young men 
are doing there lest some of these prying Fed- 
erals get hold of the letter, but he says we may 
all meet soon again. Letters from Mrs. Brown 
and Mary Lu Harrison have also come. The 
young people outside have been amusing them- 
selves with love affairs. They tell on each other 
when they write, and in this way we become 
familiar with the whole programme. Mrs. B. says 
Mary Lu is engaged to Jimmy Perkins, a Vir- 
ginia soldier and a great-grandson of Patrick 
Henry's. Charley Chilton is engaged, Mary. Lu 
says, to Miss Stokes, of Clinton. (I thought he 
loved Bettie Smith when he left here.) Sarah 
Chilton has been reaping coquettish honors on a 
large scale. She went to Mollie EmanuePs wed- 
ding, in Vicksburg, and attracted much attention. 
She is very pretty, and knows it well. She has 
an inordinate love of admiration, very unlike her 
cousin, Mary Lu, who has really romantic ideas 
in love. There were some very distinguished 
-people at Miss H.'s wedding, the letters say,, aiid 



238 JOUENAL OF JULIA LE GRAND 

by these people Sarah was particularly admired. 
She is much talked of, they say. We are left to 
guess who the distinguished people are. Presi- 
dent Davis was in Vicksburg when the wedding 
came off, and I expect was there, but he is mar- 
ried. Pemberton is in command, also Lee, some- 
where in that region — one or both of these may 
be captive to the young beauty. It reminds one 
of the old, old days, this company — feasting, rid- 
ing, dancing and love-making and slaying of 
men's hearts. Fred Ogden, too, the young cap- 
tain of a gun or two at Vicksburg, is engaged to 
somebody, whose name I can not learn. The girls 
here have no beaux to look at but the Federal 
officers, who receive anything but loving looks, 
and the British officers who, belonging to but a 
ship or two, cannot serve for all. The Stay-at- 
homes are not in good repute. It is reported that 
the Federals are about to conscript the latter 
class who have taken the oath. We wish they 
would, and arm them well; they would not be of 
much service to poor old ^^ Uncle Sam.'' The 
Budget of Fun has a picture or representation of 
Uncle Sam being bled by the Doctor (Chase), who 
holds a bowl labeled *''U. S. Treasury." The 
stream from poor Uncle 's arm is called ' ^ Taxes. ' ' 
The patient complains of great weakness, though 
clad in stars and stripes, but is persuaded by 
Chase that he can hold out a little longer. A side- 



JOURNAL OF JULIA LE GRAND 239 

view gives Louis Napoleon and John Bull arm- 
in-arm, with *'Wait till he gets weaker, and then 
we will cut in/' 

Do you know, my poor journal, that these very, 
very funny things, about matters so very, very 
serious, make me sigh! Uncle Sam's weakness 
gives me no pleasure, good Confederate as I am. 
Oh, why, in his strength, did he not let us go! 
Read a beautiful speech of Ben Wood's begging 
for peace; another of Henry May's calling for 
peace and instant recognition. This is an infe- 
rior speech as regards eloquence, and from a 
Marylander, disappointed me. I was angry 
enough with Henry May for having accepted a 
seat in the United States Congress on any terms. 
He says himself that the people of Maryland have 
been treated in the most tyrannical manner. He 
also says hp accepted the seat to keep it from 
another, who might do Maryland more harm. 
The only way to honor the poor old State is to 
repudiate a seat in that infamous horde alto- 
gether. Vorhees' speech on the habeas corpus 
bill is good, strong argument, all of it, though it 
is not embued with the sentiment of tenderness 
as is Wood's. It is not without many noble pro- 
tests that the Northern people are yielding up 
their Magna Charta. I see that at the closing 
of Congress, that Lincoln was endowed with every 
power of dictator. Treasury, personal liberty, 



240 JOURNAL OF JULIA LE GRAND 

army and navy, and the people at large to con- 
script at will— are at his disposal. They are so 
anxious — the poor Northerners — to make chains 
toT us to wear, that they forget that they are be- 
ing fitted on their own stalwart limbs. It seems 
that heaven haa stricken this people with political 
blindness. lebeinoD bou ^ ^i^^ 

There have been so many people here to- 
day that my head is in a whirl with the rumors I 
have heard. We have the Hartford, the Alha- 
tross; Farragut, a prisoner, is on his way to 
Richmond, where he will be held as hostage for 
Butler; Banks' men have mutinied — they have, 
before battle, declared their intention to run, and, 
after being blindly trusted by Banks after such 
sincere demonstrations, they have been straight- 
way as good as their word. The Confederates 
^re building a bridge at Manchac, over which 
they are to walk straightway to this city, having 
Banks' army and Farragut 's fleet in sort of a 
military calaboose. A young lady, a supposed 
spy of the Confederates, was shaking her head in 
a very peculiar way; said **Yes'' or ^' No'' to sev- 
eral political questions in a mysterious manner; 
said young lady just in from the Confederacy- 
left there last Saturday evening about dusk— r 
was escorted to the boat by Lieutenant Miller, a 
gallant young Confederate, who told her all sorts 
of things, and likewise shook his head, and having 




MISS EMILY VIRGINIA MASON 



JOURNAL OF JULIA LE GRAND 241 

performed this expressive pantomime, showed 
her practically the lumber of which the Manchac 
bridge was to be built, and told her of the dispatch 
which he had at that moment received, saying 
that Banks had been whipped, and that the Stars 
and Bars were floating over land and wave at 
Baton Rouge. Federal officers of high rank have 
been known to cry out almost in anguish, * ' Oh, if 
we could only hear from Banks !'^ They have 
been in such a wretched state of mind that they 
made their longing speeches in the very faces of 
good Confederates. Others have been heard to 
say that they would go up to Baton Rouge im- 
mediately — if they were only sure of getting back. 
WeitzePs whole army has been cut off from all 
communication in LaFourche from this city. His 
dead and wounded have come in, but the bridge 
has since been destroyed. The artillery which 
was sent off to-day, bag and baggage, have come 
back; the provisions which were also sent to his 
assistance have returned also. In short, we Con- 
federates here have set things going in an entirely 
new and spirited style — and we are to have this 
city back in a day or two, at furthest — some say 
to-morrow, some are considerate enough to wait 
until Tuesday next. Stonewall Jackson will cer- 
tainly be here before the week is out. In fact, we 
are having over again the scenes of last summer 
up till the time of the loss of that Phoenix, the 



242 JOURNAL OF JULIA LE GRAND 

Arkansas Ram. Federals are growing impru- 
dent, it seems. Officers say that they know that 
they will be captured here and tried for their 
lives. Oh, that I should waste paper in these 
hard times, when cotton is being burned by proud 
Confederates every day, with such a medley as 
private conversations are made of now! We 
women are at a loss to know quite what we shall 
do after we hear the cannon. Shall we shut up 
our doors to keep scared contrabands from claim- 
ing fellowship with us, or run out to shake hands 
with our soldiers! 

There is sometimes a reverse picture. Mrs. 
Norton sent Mary Jane, the servant, to 
pump political information from the Yan- 
kee woman who lives in a small house at the cor- 
ner, captured from Mr. Phillips. The woman, 
whose husband is in the Federal army at Baton 
Rouge, has her plans laid out as regularly as 
ours. The Monitor has passed the Port Hudson 
batteries ; Farragut is safe and well, on the flag- 
ship Hartford; Port Hudson is entirely torn to 
pieces, and the Confederates and Federals are 
near enough for conversation — in short, she will 
have the * ^ rebellion ' ^ over in a few days. All 
these statements, and the reverse, come from the 
most reliable people. I think the fabled well has 
caved in and covered up dear Truth forever. If 
she survives sufficiently after this war is over to 



JOURNAL OF JULIA LE GRAND 243 

give us a history of it, it will be more than I ex- 
pect of her. Some earnest articles in Northern 
papers are calling for true statements to be made 
to the people. The war has been kept up by de- 
ception. It is time that the North should know 
that her enemy is quick in resource, brave, vigi- 
lant, determined and persevering — that she has 
been unfortunate on land and sea ; that her foe is 
neither too naked or starved too much to fight 
valiantly, and that last of all, that the famous 
canal is a failure. The proud Northern trans- 
ports will never sail through it to carry soldiers 
to die on the Walnut Hills. The upper army is 
in sad plight; that I can see from their own pa- 
pers. The constant rising of the Mississippi de- 
prives them even of a dry camp. The sun is 
growing quite hot now, and mosquitoes must be- 
gin to torment the sick and suffering. I feel sorry 
for the thousands of poor aching heads that are 
now lying far from woman's kindly aid, in many 
a dismal camp, both Federal and Confederate. I 
feel oftener sorry for the Federals, I believe, 
though the Confederates are dearer. Our boys 
are sustained by the knowledge that they are 
right. Wlio would not be sustained for fighting 
for hearthstone and native land! The constant 
statements of the Northern papers prove that the 
Federal army is dissatisfied and in a state of de- 
moralization. Hooker has just dismissed forty 



244 JOURNAL OF JULIA LE GRAND 

officers in disgrace. A few days ago he had to 
shoot at the privates, right and left. In this town 
soldiers are deserting constantly, I know. From 
all accounts it would seem that Banks has found 
in New Orleans a Capua — though he is no Han- 
nibal. Fifteen hundred deserters have been 
taken up recently in New York City. The Ad- 
ministration blames the Generals, Admirals and 
contractors, and changes them forthwith; the 
people blame the Administration, and so the pa- 
pers get filled with complaints. Only a few wise, 
nohle men assail the Cause; and these are not 
hearkened to or obeyed. There is a goodly show 
of verse in town commemorating Strong's dispers- 
ing the members of Doctor Goodrich's church. 
I have not seen them. Doctor Goodrich, now in 
New York, writes to his wife. I believe I have re- 
corded that he and two others — Mr. Fulton and 
Doctor Leacock — were refused a landing here be- 
cause they had refused to take the oath. In the 
St. Nicholas Hotel, New York, Colonel Strong met 
Doctor Goodrich, and remembering his face, and 
not where he had seen it, spoke to him and asked 
his name. *^I, sir,'' said the minister, **am Doctor 
Goodrich, of St. Paul's Church, New Orleans, and 
you, sir, are Colonel Strong." He then turned 
on his heel and left him. I do not envy Strong's 
feelings for the moment. We heard that he had 
had compunctions about breaking up the church. 



JOURNAL OF JULIA LE GRAND 245 

and that he was very pale and trembled, bnt be- 
ing commissioned by the strong-willed Butler, 
obeyed. I was told that Strong said he thought 
the women would fly at him. This accounts for 
his paleness, I suppose. 

Sunday, 22 [March]. General Banks arrived 
last night, having in train two boatloads of ne- 
groes to be put on plantations below the city. This 
is very nice work for an abolition General, and 
there is no word of it in the Yankee Era, which 
must keep as respectable a face as possible before 
the world. General Banks' arrival is not men- 
tioned — why, we can not say. "Why he is here, 
thousands are at this moment at work to discover. 
Mrs. Norton sent Mary Jane to General Banks' 
house (at least to his residence, which is her 
daughter's house, and where are some of the ser- 
vants left by Mrs. Harrison when she went off). 
Jane discovered from the servants that Banks is 
to return immediately ; that he has brought down 
many servants and about twenty prisoners, and 
that Port Hudson has been torn to pieces, and 
that Farragut is quite safe and is industriously 
aiding the work of ^' Rebel" starvation by keep- 
ing guard over the mouth of Red River. Some of 
this information we Rebels take the liberty of 
doubting, though old Harriet professed to have 
gathered all this from Banks' own lips by listen- 
ing at the door. Of course, speculation runs riot 



246 JOURNAL OF JULIA LE GRAND 

— that the attack on Port Hudson is abandoned, 
and that it is 7iot, are now matters of argument. 
The Yankee Era and our Federalist neighbor say 
that Banks did not go up to do anything, and that 
he has accomplished all he intended to do. Of 
course we are not to be so hoodwinked, and do 
not believe all the extravagant reports of our suc- 
cesses, but we do know that Banks and army sal- 
lied out of Baton Rouge, and after a few skir- 
mishes, made a hasty retreat thereto; we also 
know that torn-to-pieces-Port Hudson still 
proudly rears her protecting crest, and while she 
does so Banks and his famous ^^ expedition,'* 
which has been filling the public mouth, has not 
done yet what it traveled so many miles to do. 
Indeed, we think of little else and talk of little 
else but ''Banks' Expedition.'' This matter of 
Port Hudson seems to the public mind what Vicks- 
burg was when she was attacked — a turning point, 
a crisis in our affairs. No mere battle could ex- 
cite quite so many hopes and fears. Should we 
lose control of this great river, our chances for 
peace are delayed for an indefinite time, perhaps 
forever. Should Port Hudson fall, or Vicksburg, 
thousands of hearts would lose hope to struggle, 
though we all say, ^^ Nothing can make us give 
up." Were our supposed conquerors a different 
people ; if the faintest shadow of generosity pre- 
vailed in the national councils, we might strike 



JOURNAL OF JULIA LE GRAND 247 

less boldly; but as matters now stand, each Sou- 
thern man knows and feels that there are no such 
words for him as home and country unless the 
uncivilized hordes which desolate both are stricken 
low or beaten from Southern shores. 

The negroes and soldiery are behaving dread- 
fully about Baton Rouge (in the country). My 
blood runs cold to think of all the dreadful deeds 
which have been done. Many a noble protest comes, 
even from the North, against the way in which this 
war has been carried on. Turchim, who committed 
unspeakable crimes in northern Alabama, and 
who was court-martialed and dismissed for the 
same by the gentlemen of the army, was after- 
wards rewarded by *^ Honest Abe'' and his ac- 
complices. Blenker's degraded command are 
forever rendered infamous for their outrages in 
the Virginia Valley. What untold horrors have 
been committed and unpunished in Tennessee, 
Northern Mississippi, in Arkansas and Missouri ! 
Our blood has congealed at the recitals sent us, 
and sleep been driven from our eyes at night by 
the shocking details that we can not, out of re- 
spect to public decency, reproduce. All these out- 
rages perpetrated without inquiry and without 
punishment, at the hands of the commandants on 
the banks of the Mississippi, in Tennessee and 
Arkansas. Is it strange that a soldiery thus 
demoralized prove contemptible on the field of bat- 



248 JOUENAL OF JULIA LE GRAND 

tie where they meet brave men! Here are accu- 
sations from a Northern paper, and they are all 
true: *^A mournful contrast is presented to us 
of the North. The Confederate General Stuart 
made a raid into Pennsylvania with his cavalry. 
Like McClellan, he respected private property. 
Not a piece of bacon, not a chicken or a turkey 
was stolen from the defenceless inhabitants of 
Gettysburg or Chambersburg by his ragged and 
half-starved troops. In the language we heard 
from the lips of an extreme and unconditional 
Union man of those parts, opposite whose fine 
country-seat a body of Confederate cavalry biv- 
ouacked for a night and a day, *the Confederate 
forces were ragged and lousy gentlemen.^ A 
party of Lincoln's cavalry had encamped on the 
same grounds previously, and in the language of 
the same unconditional Union man, their conduct 
proved them to be * Comfortably dressed black- 
guards.' But the strong contrast we purposed 
drawing between the Confederates in Chambers- 
burg and the Federals in Fredericksburg, is this : 
The Confederates visited the Chambersburg Bank 
and asked if there were any Government deposits 
there. Being satisfied that there was nothing 
but private property. General Stuart ordered the 
bank, in which he saw thousands of gold, to be 
locked up and guarded, and not a dollar of it was 
taken. In Fredericksburg, on the occasion of 



JOURNAL OF JULIA LE GRAND 249 

Burnside's disastrous foray, while the Irish and 
other brave brigades were turning their reproach- 
ful eyes where Lincoln was telling his hateful 
jokes to his Cabinet, said, like the gladiators in 
the pagan arena, ^ImperatoVy morituri te salutant 
(Despot, we salute you!), and rush on to certain 
death. The pet regiments of the Abolitionists who 
did not rush on to certain death, accomplished 
more certainly by their victory. These Achilles of 
Puritanism had also among them a Homer, wor- 
thy to immortalize their deeds. The correspon- 
dent of the Abolition Daily Times, of this city 
(New York), felt his soul expand as he dilated on 
how some of the regiments with whom he stayed 
rohhed the bank of Fredericksburg and pocketed 
the ^ Rebel' gold of those Philistines — who, though 
non-combatants and helpless — were the proper 
spoils of the saints of New England!'' Again: 
**When this war is over a charge will be made 
against a Federal General on the Mississippi, that 
after capturing slaves he hastened them off for 
cotton and sent the cotton to the North and sold 
it/^ I can add that the charge can be brought 
against many — not one. I can prove that house- 
hold furniture has been boxed up and sent to 
women at the North — taken from the houses cap- 
tured by these people ; also clothing left in houses, 
household treasures and luxuries, even shrubbery 
dug from private yards. * ^ Those who fought with 



250 JOURNAL OF JULIA LE GRAND 

Blenker and Milroy, under Banks and Fremont, 
plundered and destroyed. Pope began his igno- 
minious and short-lived career by adopting plun- 
der as a rule.'' ^^But why," as this Northern 
journal asks, ''dwell on outrages on property, 
when still more horrible atrocities are perpetrated 
and go unpunished?" 

Human depravity sickens me; I must turn 
from the picture which our bleeding country 
presents. How do I know that New Orleans 
may not soon be called to play her part in 
the fearful drama ! The presence of a large for- 
eign population has hitherto preserved her from 
common outrage. The privates have been held 
in check ; the officers only have robbed in the name 
of the law. The houses and funds of defenceless 
women have been seized, and numbers have been 
fed on charity, or starve, who, before the Federals 
came, were well off. No general sacking has taken 
place, but we are threatened with pillage and fire 
if the Confederates attempt to take the city. But- 
ler did not scruple to say last summer that he had 
signals all ready, and a Confederate attack on 
this place would let San Domingo in upon us. 
These Federals have done so many awful things 
that we are prepared to believe anything of their 
capacity for evil. I do not judge them by Confed- 
erate accounts — in our excited state we might 
color too highly — but by the accounts of their own 



JOURNAL OF JULIA LE GRAND 251 

people and their protests against them. Their 
accusations have been as bitter as ours. It is 
comforting to know that there are some kindly 
spirits at the North. 

Mary Harrison has been in from Greenville to see 
Ginnie, who has been sick ; she brought some nice 
jelly which she had made herself. I told her she 
only wanted to show it because she had made it, 
but I thanked her for it, though pride did lie at 
the bottom ; the jelly was so clear that I could see 
her plainly. Mary says that her father has a 
letter telling him that Banks' mysterious retreat 
upon Baton Rouge was caused by Stonewall Jack- 
son's appearance in that region. These heroes 
have met before, and Banks remembers that meet- 
ing well, I'd warrant. If Stonewall, our dear 
hero, who realizes every one's ideas of a true 
knight, ^Hender and true," is not near at hand 
for our deliverance, I fear many of us will die 
broken-hearted. We are determined to believe 
that he is hovering near our lines. Lee is enough 
for Virginia and a dozen Hookers. Why should 
not Stonewall be sent to such an important point 
as this? Everything depends upon the conduct 
of affairs in this region. So we reject every wise 
counsel which tells us to ^*not put our trust in — " 
the coming of our favorite knight. A Confeder- 
ate attack is expected, and the Federal long-roll 
has been beaten at dead of night. The Ogdens 



252 JOUENAL OF JULIA LE GRAND 

were all in to-day, breathless and voluble. They 
know Stonewall is outside — that is because of the 
spy story. Jule looked horrified when I said that 
I believed that no spy would take so many into his 
confidence. Everybody has a spy story now. Mrs. 
Carr called in a soldier from her gate who was a 
little, little too far advanced upon a certain road. 
He was a Confederate soldier in Yankee clothes, 
who was out of his mind (for a moment), and was 
blabbing Confederate secrets. After leaking him 
sleep awhile he awoke refreshed, and was able to 
tell her much about to happen. He knew all about 
the Confederates coming, but a few minutes after- 
wards he recovered his mind entirely and was so 
stricken with remorse for having revealed Con- 
federate plans that he wanted to make all present 
take a solemn oath to reveal nothing. Of course, 
they made ready promise about keeping it, and 
feel so conscientious that they have only broken 
it to their particular friends, and that only in 
whispers. The particular friends who received 
such good tidings under protest, likewise are 
equally as conscientious, and have not yet pro- 
claimed from a housetop, but have whispered in 
parlors and private sanctums. There is a great 
change in morals close at hand, at all events — we 
h^ve all vowed to believe in nothing forevermore 
if the Confederates do not come this time. Heaven 
defend us from such a state of atheism. Mrs. 



JOURNAL OF JULIA LE GRAND 253 

Judge Clark is here. She is a sweet, sweet old 
lady, but she is deaf and has heard nothing; we 
had to break our promise about the whispering 
and scream into her ear what we knew. This is 
only the one infraction, however. Annie Waugh 
was here, and knew a great deal that her father 
could vouch for. Mr. and Mrs. Roselius were 
here, and will not believe in anything — a very un- 
interesting state of affairs. 

Mrs. Roselius gave us, among other histo- 
ries, that of Mrs. General Valle, who has 
excited some interest in ^'RebeP' bosoms 
by having a woman arrested for looking at 
her. She was a great heiress and much spoiled 
by her parents, who, when she came of age, looked 
about for some one whom she could marry. After 
looking far and wide for some one whom she would 
even think of, she remembered suddenly that she 
had a cousin at West Point. He was of her own 
blood, and she therefore determined to marry 
him. What she thought worthy of doing she did 
forthwith. I did not hear that the general (then 
a lieutenant) made any demur. He agreed with 
the lady in thinking that the human race was made 
that she might not be in it alone, and therefore 
ennuied by solitude. This lady, after marriage, 
thought it proper that a person in her position 
should set an example of conjugal affection. She 
therefore accompanied her husband to the Rio 



254 JOURNAL OF JULIA LE GRAND 



• 



Grande — overlooking his command, probably. She 
had never eaten a dinner in her life without ice- 
cream; therefore, the chemical apparatuses for 
making it were packed up among other '' military 
necessities'' of the Department of the Rio Grande. 
She promoted her husband, I have no doubt, for 
he is now a general. I am not exaggerating — ■ 
this is the woman 's own story of herself, given out 
to an admiring circle of visitors and listeners. 
She travels with a legion of pillows which are ar- 
ranged for her by her general and a real gentle- 
woman, whose reduced condition keeps her as 
companion to the creature. Wlien Mrs. General 

V walks abroad from hotel or on steamer 

deck her two attendants announce that **Mrs. 
General Valle is about to take the air.'' What 
she may take in the future, heaven only knows I 
It is enough for me to remember that the news- 
papers say she has had a woman arrested for 
looking at her, and that a Northern court has sup- 
ported her in the charge. She was gazing, it 
seems, from an open window as some women 
passed, one of whose regard was attracted to- 
wards her for an undue length of time. She 
dresses absurdly, and perhaps attracted attention 
on this score. ** Woman, do you know tvho you 
are looking at?^' The accused betrayed ignor- 
ance on this momentous topic, and — was arrested. 
Mrs. Ramsay, a neighbor, knows this lady. I very 



JOURNAL OF JULIA LE GRAND 255 

mncli fear I have spelled her name improperly, in 
my haste and usual confusion. I feel at perfect 
liberty with other words, and indeed, with sen- 
tences, but with what relates to this ^^ precious 
piece of porcelain,'^ who certainly needs a fall, I 
should like to be careful. Mrs. Norton has been 
calling and reading out loud to me from the next 
room. I hope her ladyship will take my default 
into kindly consideration; so do I hope you will 
also, my little niece, and not make poor Aunty the 
excuse and example of a journal of your own some 
day. I called out to Mrs. Norton just now that I 
had read a certain article that she was stumbling 
over, and she answered, ^^I ain't a-goin' to read 
to you; I was just tellin' you what lies the Yan- 
kees tell.*' Late last night — indeed, every night 
— I have this to undergo. To say that I am un- 
easy is not to say enough. I wish that Ginnie, at 
least, was in a quieter home. I must get off to 
Greenville soon, though I hate to leave the old 
lady alone. Our friends there are begging for us 
earnestly. The Ogdens call on us at the door, 
and whisper us to make haste. They say they do 
not like to ask us before Mrs. Norton. 

When the Yankees came in town Mrs. Brown, 
Mrs.Dameron and Mrs. Norton came to us and said 
that we should not live without protection. We 
therefore broke up housekeeping, intending to go 
to sister, in Texas, as soon as possible. We sold 



256 JOURNAL OF JULIA LE GRAND 

our furniture (but did not get paid), and went to 
Mrs. Dameron's. We were there as the Yankees 
came up the river, and sat on her upper gallery 
nearly all night and watched the flames and smoke 
which rose from the cotton burning on the levee, 
while the shouts and songs of the multitude sounded 
in our ears. Her baby, William Brown, was born 
that night. He is a lovely boy, and has not seen 
his papa yet, though he is nearly a year old. I 
should have liked to have stayed with Mrs. Dam- 
eron; we had a delightful upstairs room, with 
dressing room attached there; but Mrs. Norton 
would have us come here. She came over to Mrs. 
Dameron's herself and slept in our room with us 
until we consented to move. She meant to be 
kind, I know, but I know also she hates to be alone ; 
that she hates to be silent or to allow others to 
remain so. She has said that she is fond of us; 
for this I am grateful, and I do believe she would 
do us any kindness she could, if it did not injure 
herself or family. I can not expect more, of her. 
People are accustomed to her saying what she 
pleases, and even the Federals here know her. 
Almost the whole town visits her — she is so fond 
of company. Mary, the servant, was, I think, ex- 
cited by liquor the other day, and broke out upon 
her mistress in the most insolent manner. I had 
often heard them have those quarrels together 
before, but never knew Mary to go so far. Her 



JOURNAL OF JULIA LE GRAND 257 

mistress told her she might go to the Yankees as 
soon as she pleased ; that she had done for herself 
with her forever, and when her grandsons re- 
turned, she intended to have her well paid for her 
insolence. Mary has a very high temper, and 
when she gets angry, she is frightful to see. When 
she whips little Jake, though she is his own aunt, 
she does it as if she wanted to kill him. I have 
often begged for him, and have borne with the 
little rascal 's insolence, mischief and thieving con- 
stantly, rather than tell his mistress or Mary. He 
took every advantage of Gin's and my weakness, 
or leniency, and really seemed to take a pleasure 
in venting the wickedness upon us which he was 
obliged to suppress to them. Harriet took our 
money on the same principle. Ever since this last 
outbreak of Mary's I have been afraid she would 
run away. She has always had control of the 
supply closet until now, and has had the yard 
filled with her chickens. Her mistress made her 
remove them a few days ago. These things have 
added to her anger and have made returning re- 
pentance impossible. Mary has a good heart, 
though she will not bear a word of reproof. I told 
her that she did wrong and that she should take 
into consideration the fact that her mistress is an 
old woman, and has had much trouble lately. She 
has been very sullen and gloomy. 

Monday, 23d [March]. I was very unwell, and 



258 JOURNAL OF JULIA LE GRAND 

it poured down rain all day — a real equinox. Sat 
pretty much in my room, hearing Mrs. Norton 
through the open door fretting about not being 
able to go out and make some visits, and talking 
about the negroes and the Yankees alternately. I 
feel all the time as if she feels we ought to be with 
her and amuse her. I so often nowadays recall 
scenes and feelings of Frances Burney at Court. 
Her longing to go — her useless sacrifice of herself 
and her struggles between a longing for a more 
congenial society and a fancied gratitude. Read 
a little and wrote a little and sighed a great deal 
today. Went to bed, but as it was storming still 
and Mrs. Norton did not feel sleepy, she talked to 
us in bed and made every possible noise and in- 
quiry so as to keep us awake. We were both so 
exhausted by a previous sleeplessness and sick- 
ness that I could not show much agreeahility in 
my tone of voice. I am quite ready for any de- 
mand upon my friendship and will go to the death 
for those I love, but I resent being made use of. 
Mrs. Norton is sensitive to the slightest change 
in tone from another, and resents it as a wrong 
done her, though she does not yield her own pre- 
rogative in saying whatever she pleases. Indeed, 
I have a very kind feeling for her, and I pity her 
age and infirmities. I only feel more fully than 
ever that people who have nothing in common 
should never, under any circumstances, live 
together. 



JOURNAL OF JULIA LE GRAND 259 

Tuesday broke beautifully clear; soon clouded; 
poured down again, and even hailed. I had ter- 
rible headache and aching of limbs all night — 
could not get up to breakfast. Ginnie brought me 
some tea, and seemed so concerned about me, and 
indeed, looked so very badly herself, that I got up 
and dressed. I went out on the balcony and helped 
pick up the unusual hailstones, though stooping 
was hard work indeed. I had to lie down again 
and did not go out to see Mr. Randolph, though he 
sat the morning with Ginnie and Mrs. Norton. He 
comes often to see if he can aid us in any way — 
and he would do anything for us — unconditionally , 
too. Within the last week he has had another child 
born to him. He regrets that it is not a boy. He 
was so anxious to call it ^' Rebel" Randolph. He 
could call his girl ^^ Rebellion" or ^^Rebellia," he 
says, but cannot bear anything that seems to 
make a girl or woman conspicuous. I like this 
sentiment; it accords with his usual ones; he is 
really brave and manly, and in everything shows 
tenderness to women and unfortunates. Ginnie 's 
eyes have been very much inflamed of late, and 
she has been wearing green glasses. I told an ac- 
quaintance that they were as red as blood, mean- 
ing the lids, and the report, wonderfully exagger- 
ated, reached our friends at Greenville, and 
brought them to see us. Mr. Randolph says there 
was much sympathy and excitement out there as 
they heard Ginnie 's eyes were running bloody and 



260 JOURNAL OF JULIA LE GEAND 

that she had lost them entirely. So much for re- 
port. Thousands of rumors fill the city. The 
newspapers are a dead waste; they tell nothing. 
I know from a gentleman who really does know, 
that Banks, before he left, said, that if any pub- 
lisher interfered with Ms actions or proceedings, 
he would ^^see to it.'' Brashear City has been 
taken by the Confederates, and Banks, upon his 
return from Baton Rouge, hurried up to that re- 
gion, taking the vessels which remained here. 
They have seized all the cars. There seems to be 
a great excitement and expectation among our 
people. We know not what a day may bring 
forth, and lie down at night not knowing what may 
happen before morning. Reuben, Mary's hus- 
band, has had a cart here and has removed all 
Mary 's things and his own. I want to go out and 
talk to Mary — to beg her not to go away — but Mrs. 
Norton does not like to have us talk with her serv- 
ants, and I do not know as I ought to listen to all 
that she would say about her mistress. I have beg- 
ged Jane to talk to her, for I know that Mary is 
acting from the promptings of temper and that she 
will be sorry for it afterward. I begged Jane to do 
her duty, and that she would be rewarded for it 
after this time of desolation is over. That Jane 
goes out at night without her mistress ' knowledge, 
I am positive, but I think she is lonely and un- 
happy here. Farragut reported to be positively 



JOURNAL OF JULIA LE GRAND 261 

a prisoner ; the Hartford positively taken, and so 
is also the Albatross; and Stonewall is positively 
outside, and the Confederates positively about to 
attack. I feel a little nervous thrill, but it soon 
dies out. 

Wednesday, 25th [March] . Did not sleep again 
last night, and only dozed near morning. Dreamed 
quantities — of being at Shepley's house and re- 
fusing to eat at his table ; saw thousands of people, 
all under unpleasant circumstances ; wrote a sav- 
age letter to Mayor Miller, and made myself con- 
spicuous generally. Heard Mrs. Norton talking 
early to Jane ; called her in and asked the question 
which had been lying on my mind, ^^Has Mary 
gone ? " ^ ^ No, Miss. ' ' Greatly relieved, I turned 
over to get a nap, for I felt weak, nervous and 
sleepy. Presently I heard Jane say, ^'Aunt Mary 
has gone and taken Jake.'^ No more sleep — got 
up and dressed; I felt desolate and oppressed 
and it was quite cold. I felt quite as sorry as I 
did when Julie Ann left us. Mrs. Norton is quite 
cut up, though she says that she knew that Mary 
was going. Her first words were, *'Now you 
know whether I know nothing or not, donH you?'' 
This was a cut at us for having taken Mary's part. 
Indeed, I know all — that the woman would not 
have left but for her having taken too much liquor, 
and in that state passed the boundary too far for 
return. She took Jake alonsr. We have both ad- 



262 JOURNAL OF JULIA LE GRAND 

vised Mrs. Norton to move to her daughter's, Mrs. 
Dameron's, and we would go to Mr. Randolph's. 
We could board with them. After much entreaty, 
he would board us instead of receiving us as vis- 
itors. She was angry at the mere mentioning of 
such a thing — said that nothing could make her 
live in a house full of children, and moreover, she 
says that if she goes to Mrs. Dameron's all the 
servants would leave, as they do not like her. This 
I am afraid is true, as Mrs. Norton sees defects in 
the servant world very keenly, and she does not 
keep silence afterward. Mrs. Dameron's house- 
full of servants have been too long indulged to 
allow of any interference, especially now that they 
can go to the Yankees with any story they please. 
This Yankee soldier 's wife at the corner keeps the 
servants of this neighborhood miserable. Hers 
are as well clad as she is, and have quite as much 
time to themselves, but they look sour and anxious. 
Those who are innocently inclined and are really 
attached to their mistresses are reproached by 
others and these low Yankees. I feel very sorry 
for Mrs. Norton. She did not believe that Mary 
would leave her, though she said so often. I think 
that Mary Jane, who is deceitful, I think, had 
much to do with Mary's conduct. How long her 
ladyship may remain, no one knows. This flitting 
has caused quite a commotion in this household, 
and, indeed, I must say that I can never get over 



JOURNAL OF JULIA LE GRAND 263 

my sorrowful feeling for a blow of this sort. I 
liad expected better things of Mary. She had al- 
ways talked of being fond of her mistress ^ family, 
and letters were read to her only a few days ago 
from every member of it, in which she was spoken 
of with much attachment. Charley and Mrs. 
Brown both spoke of what they intended to do to 
reward her for her faithfulness. 
'- The Yankees have undermined every good 
feeling which at one time existed between 
these poor people and their owners. I am 
almost afraid to see the Confederates, though 
I long for their coming. So many people 
have been betrayed by pet servants. Strange 
that some of the most severe mistresses 
and masters have kept their servants through all 
this trying year. Mrs. Roselius came over as 
soon as she heard of Mary's flight, and proposed 
to send over a girl of her sister's who had been 
left with her while her sister was in Europe. She 
is an ugly, half -dazed looking creature — innocent, 
though, I think. She came in evidently much 
frightened, having been told alarming tales by 
Mrs. Roselius 's other servants. She seemed to re- 
vive after having been spoken to kindly. Her 
name is Kitty ; I like the poor thing, somehow. I 
do not expect her to be honest, though, and will try 
to remember to lock up. I laid $1.50 on the bureau 
one morning and it disappeared in a very short 



264 JOUENAL OF JULIA LE GRAND 

time. This locking up and watching is perfectly 
hateful to me. But what can one do? One is 
obliged to be honest oneself and to pay one's debts. 
But negroes have no mercy and will take one 's last 
cent if you keep it unlocked. I would hate them if 
I considered them responsible and developed be- 
ings. They are not quite men and women yet. I 
think the Yankees must be of the same mind, for 
they are catching up the negroes as if they were 
animals J to put them on the Government planta- 
tions. Judge Ogden and Mrs. Waugh passed the 
morning with us. The Judge was mysterious, 
and evidently smiles all over him. He is quite 
brilliant with some secret political information. 
He would tell nothing, but told us with much em- 
phasis to fear nothing; that all our troubles (po- 
litical) would be over in a week or two. He was 
in the depths of gloom not long ago. He does not 
know that Mary has told us about the spy. I sup- 
pose that this spy story, at least, must be true, be- 
cause the Ogdens have heard from Billy that his 
captain (Tucker) has been on detached service for 
some time, and that he (Billy) being first lieuten- 
ant, is acting in his place. Judge Ogden saw 
Captain Tucker in Virginia on service — knows 
that he has been sent on this mission, so I suppose 
there can be no deception in this case. He told 
Judge Ogden that he had been sent here for in- 
formation as to the position of things generally 



JOURNAL OF JULIA LE GRAND 265 

here. He says that Stonewall Jackson is outside 
at Camp Moore, and that this city is to be attacked 
as soon as the Port Hudson affair is over. When 
will it be over? we constantly ask ourselves. The 
varied reports one hears are enough to confuse 
one's intellect, fraught, as they are, with our 
dearest interests. All conversation now is a med- 
ley of what this spy or that has told, or what some 
returned prisoner has reported, or that Colonel 
This or Lieutenant That or Captain So and So 
has said. We have heard again for the hundredth 
time that Weitzel has been surrounded and cut to 
pieces. Brashear is now reported to have been 
captured by the Confederates. Provisions and 
artillery sent in that direction for Weitzel have 
been brought back. Some muddy, soiled and tired 
cavalry have ridden into town. 

We took dinner at Mrs. Dameron's. Prac- 
ticed on the piano a good deal — the first time 
for months. I regret that I have so neglected 
my music, but have had no heart for any- 
thing. Between three and four we heard can- 
non in the distance — listened with our hearts 
for some time. We concluded it to be a 
general clearing out of guns at Camp Parafet. 
Meant to take a walk, but calling in here for my 
gloves found so much company that I could not 
get away. We sat upon the gallery. Mary Waugh 
came; sent by her father to learn what we knew 



266 JOUENAL OF JULIA LE GEAND 

of a Jackson paper of the 20th, said to be in town, 
and of which Judge Ogden had told ns. These 
papers are contraband, but they get in sometimes 
in reality, but oftener by report. We often hear 
of wonderful victories of ours, said to be detailed 
by this paper, but the search after it often proves 
hopeless. You never find anyone who has read 
it with his oivn eyes. It is quite a common ques- 
tion, *'Did you see it yourself f Generally some 
very reliable person has been told by some other 
reliable person who would not deceive anyone in 
small matters or great. So many of these stories 
are proved false by time that the *^ reliable'' man 
or woman has fallen into bad repute. Three ru- 
mors now bring any tale under the ban. This pa- 
per of the 20th, the reliable man said, confirmed 
the capture of Farragut and the Hartford. Great 
rumors of the cutting to pieces of Eosecrans pre- 
vail. The existence and non-existence of the In- 
dianola are as much matters of discussion now as 
ever the lamented Arkansas gave rise to. We hear 
^* reliable'' proofs of both. I am somewhat con- 
fused myself by opposite statements, but some 
people walk with sublime faith through the laby- 
rinth. Mrs. Harrison, whose husband is confined 
here so long, and whom she is still allowed to visit, 
sat on the gallery with us and told us many things 
she had heard the day before from the Confeder- 
ate prisoners who had been brought in. Colonel 



JOURNAL OF JULIA LE GRAND 267 

Frank Gardiner's Signal Corps, near Port Hud- 
son, were captured ; Captain Youngblood and oth- 
ers. The passing of Farragut, at Port Hudson, 
and the crippling and the return of the other ves- 
sels, and the burning of the Mississippi presented 
a sublime and awful spectacle. It all took place 
at night, and the roar of the guns, both from the 
ships and shore, must have been deafening and 
terrible to hear. The crew of the Mississippi 
were all captured or killed. Many a wounded 
man silently lay upon the decks and was devoured 
by the flames as she floated. My blood seems to 
curdle, and I believe my heart does really bleed. 
It seems strange that we can eat, drink, sleep and 
array ourselves while such horrors are enacting 
daily. This evening I sat on the gallery and lis- 
tened while Mrs. H told prison tales and 

showed Annie Waugh how to make some rose- 
trimming that she had seen Ginnie wear and espe- 
cially admired. I do not feel like a trifler, I know. 
Thursday, 26th [March]. Mrs. Dameron, Ginnie, 
Mrs. White, Mrs. Waugh and myself paid a visit 
to the establishment of Mr. Burnside. He is very 
rich and an old bachelor and ladies are often asked 
to view his gardens and pictures. The house is 
built and furnished after the European fashion 
(on a small scale), and is really a bijou of comfort 
inside, though homely without. The pictures dis- 
appointed me, except in two instances. The china- 



268 JOURNAL OF JULIA LE GRAND 

closet had nothing old in it. I have seen a far more 
beautiful collection of the real antique in my dear 
mother's closet at '' Portland Manor/' before we 

sold out in Maryland. Mr. B made his money 

himself, and I would not in the least object to 
being as rich as he. Whether new blood or old, 
I respect blood, but three generations of extreme 
poverty, with all the mean cares and roughening 
labors which surely accompanies it, changes its 
promptings as well as its color. The proud noble, 
warded off from every detrimental influence, may 
imagine himself formed by high heaven of the 
rarest porcelain, but he is a money production 
after all. And the famous blue blood is but a 
compound of the best of food and influences, re- 
lieved from commonness. I am observer enough 
to be thus far a materialist. Came home from the 
tour tired enough. We were desired to leave our 
names, and as I left that of Mrs. Dameron, the 
sister-in-law of Mr. Shepherd Brown, the richest 
man in town, and in whose house General Shepley 
is now living, I felt sure of being recommended by 
the servants at least ; they were vastly polite and 
attentive. Mary Ogden and Rose Wilkinson took 
dinner with us. The latter hopes to get out of 
town soon. General Sherman has promised her 
mother a pass and a passage out. This officer has 
been very kind to the Wilkinsons. When Mrs.W — 
was imprisoned he offered to do her shopping for 



JOURNAL OF JULIA LE GRAND 269 

her. Found out that the small round silk capes 
that we women folk are now wearing are called 
**Beauregards.'' Mrs. White says that that story 
of the hero which depressed me so, is not true. 
I hope not — yet, he is a Creole. I have not faith 
in their domestic relations. Doctor Fenner was up 
to-day ; he is clever, but I do not fancy him some- 
how. Anything outside of the common path would 
disturb and shock him. He is well-bred and 
amiable, however. Mr. Dudley was up with him ; 
we all walked over to Mrs. Dameron's. Ginnie 
and I then paid a visit to Mrs. Wells and Mrs. 
Montgomery. They were very glad to see us. 

Mrs. M is not long for this world, I think. 

The Judge looks rosy and hale as an Englishman. 
He will live to get another wife, I expect — this is 
his second — but he is devotedly attached to her. 
Heard much report. Read Jeff Davis ' proclama- 
tion respecting the day appointed for fasting and 
prayer. It is to be celebrated to-morrow in the 
Cathedral in the lower part of the city. The 
Catholics are bolder here than others; 'tis said 
that they wish to provoke the Federals to attack 
them. Even Butler could never awe Father 
Mullen, who, when summoned to his presence, 
answered him boldly ; when being accused of hav- 
ing refused to bury a Federal, replied fearlessly, 
'*No, sir, I would bury you all with pleasure. '* 
He told Butler that his soul was his own, also 



270 JOUENAL OF JULIA LE GRAND 

his lips, and that he would pray for the Southern 
Confederacy, and whatsoever he pleased. *^Do 
you know,'* said Butler, ^^that I can send you to 
Fort Jackson f **Do you know,'' returned 
Father Mullen, ''that I can send your soul to 
hell?" Butler pronounced Doctor Stone and 
Father Mullen the boldest and bravest men in town. 
The first he sent to prison; the latter he never 
touched. This was because he feared to excite 
the indignation of his Catholic troops. We will 
go to the Cathedral if the weather and our health 
permit. Met Mrs. Miller, a sweet woman, re- 
turning from a visit to us in our absence. Found 
Mr. Waugh, Mrs. Waugh and Annie and Mrs. 
Evans when we reached home. The burning of 
the Bio Bio, which took place at the wharf on 
Sunday, was much discussed. The ladies were 
discussing whether the damaged silks would not 
be better and cheaper to wear than the now royal 
calico. Cotton seems really king at last. We 
hear daily of the burning of this valuable ware 
by the Confederates to prevent its falling into 
Federal hands. The Yankee Era reports the 
capture of three schooners laden with it at Man- 
chac; also the taking of Pontchatoula by them. 
There was a great cannon on the newspaper, 
though no fight had taken place. Our Camp was 
some miles from Pontchatoula. This cannon be- 
longs to the old press of the Delta, which was 



JOURNAL OF JULIA LE GRAND 271 

taken from its editors among other printing 
paraphernalia. I remarked that the Yankees 
had fired this cannon with more effect than any 
other since the war commenced. They often have 
it stuck in for a fancied victory. Farragut has 
been heard of. He is not captured, the Era says, 
but is on his way to Vicksburg for coal. Barges 
of it will be brought to him through the famous 
canal. What can our boats be about if Farragut 
is free to run our batteries? 

Friday, 27th [March]. Did not feel well 
enough to go to the Cathedral. The celebration 
of the Confederate Fast is contraband, and if 
held in any other church but the Catholic would 
be broken in upon. Mr. Harrison, Mr. Roselius, 
Detty Harrison and Mary and Mrs. Jeaurenand 
took up our whole morning. I was doing up col- 
lars, too, and they quite interfered with my time. 
Kitty brought Ginnie a letter from her young 
mistress in Europe, to read for her. It came in 
a letter to Mrs. Roselius. The child wrote very 
affectionately, and begged Kitty to think of her 
as often as she thought of Kitty. She has some- 
thing very pretty for her, bought with her own 
money, and her mother has such a present for 
Kitty as will astonish her when she sees it. She 
wants to surprise her, and won't tell. This note 
had a great effect on the girl and made her dazed, 
blear eyes sparkle. She had told Mrs. Norton 



272 JOURNAL OF JULIA LE GRAND 

in the morning that she intended to run away, 
but after we talked to her and begged her not to 
listen to anything which bad people said to her, 
she seemed greatly moved. She will not go if 
Mrs. Norton does not frighten her to death by 
her manner, and if others do not take her off. 
We would not let her touch our bed-room yester- 
day or to-day, but she seems really anxious to do 
little things for us. I believe I could manage 
Kitty hy myself. I hardly think we would have 
lost Julie if we had been at home, though she 
acted badly, I admit. Mrs. Roselius here again 
this afternoon; Mrs. White, Mrs. Dameron and 
all sat on the gallery. I did not go out. Mary 
Jane makes a very poor business of cooking. 
Mrs. Norton's boast that she could do better 
without Mary than with her has not held good. 
Mrs. Norton has a warrant out for Mary on the 
plea that she carried off Jake; the police are 
after her. Mary Jane has seen her. Mary told 
her that she had been to Mayor Miller 's office and 
had obtained from him a free pass. It is easy to 
be generous with the property of other people. 
He and his master. General Shepley, should be 
content to live free in Mrs. Brown's house with- 
out further injuring her aged mother. When 
these people took possession of Mrs. Brown's 
elegant establishment they drove Mrs. Dameron 
out. She had moved to her sister's during the 



JOURNAL OF JULIA LE GRAND 273 

absence of her husband for the sake of her com- 
panionship; but Mr. Brown falling under the 
Federal ban, Mrs. Brown grew alarmed for his 
safety; his health was feeble and he could not 
have lived through a short imprisonment even. 
He is kept alive by the easiest and most comfort- 
able life. 

V They accordingly fled in secret, old Phelps, 
who is really the best of the Federals, having 
good-naturedly given them passes. This was 
in Butler's day; if they had been caught, 
heaven alone knows what might have happened. 
Mrs. Dameron was not allowed to take anything 
out of the house. She waited days before she 
could even get her baby's crib or her children's 
clothing. Nothing of her sister's was she allowed 
to touch. Mrs. Brown had already shipped off 
silver and other valuables ; they, I believe, safely 
reached the Confederacy. She did not tell any 
of her family where they were lest old Butler 
would imprison them, as he did others, and make 
them tell where they were. Her carpets and cur- 
tains she shipped to New York; after Shepley 
came to the house a regular search was made for 
everything. Mrs. Brown's servants were all re- 
tained — her elegant carriage made a hack of, and 
her common one also. Her servants were ques- 
tioned and cross-questioned about linens and 
other things, and the clerk who sent off the car- 



274 JOURNAL OF JULIA LE GRAND 

pets and the very draymen who carried them to 
the boat were threatened with ball and chain un- 
less they betrayed where everything had been 
taken. They recovered everything except the 
silver, and are living finely in the fine house. Mrs. 
Norton had been told by Mrs. Brown that she 
could take over unto herself the quantities of 
provisions of all kinds left in the storeroom ; also 
a great deal of coal. Mrs. Dameron was sur- 
prised by two officers jumping over the railing 
one day whilst she was at dinner. Frightened, 
she ran upstairs, but the officers questioning her 
name of the servants, very wittily remarked that 
she better damn downstairs pretty quick. From 
that time the guard never left the house. They 
were insolent and searched everything, even the 
basket of soiled clothes. ^' 

Mrs. Dameron 's friends soon filled the house 
and Mrs. Richardson, who has interest with 
the Federals, had the guard removed and 
a more courteous couple sent in their place. 
'^But she is not to remove even a tea- 
spoon, '^ said Colonel French. The last guard 
behaved decently, refusing even to leave the gal- 
lery at night; so Mrs. Dameron did them the 
honor to pour out their coffee herself the next 
morning. She left the house and its belongings 
to the Federals that day. Mrs. Norton asked 
General Shepley for the provisions; he said he 



JOURNAL OF JULIA LE GRAND 275 

had no objections ; she sent for them, and had her 
dray returned with a note from one of Shepley's 
staff (Captain Miller). He could ^^not think/' 
he said, ^^of depriving the poor servants of the 
provisions, as they had been deserted by their 
owners without a support for the coming win- 
ter.'' This was cool, certainly, after having 
driven Mrs. Dameron from her sister's house 
and preventing the servants from going to her. 
Captain Miller, with his own hands, opened Mrs. 
Brown's trunks; he told Mrs. Norton himself that 
he was on the search for linen. The carpets were 
brought back from New York, and one day when 
Mrs. Norton called, she found the General, or 
Governor, as he calls himself, overseeing the 
packing-box; he looked a little abashed, having 
that much grace left, and remarked that if he 
**had not gotten hold of the carpets and curtains, 
they would have been eaten with moth. ' ' Heaven 
preserve Lee and Stonewall from such saving 
propensities! Well, this same Captain Miller 
has given Mary a pass independent of her mis- 
tress. General Banks has nestled himself in 
Mrs. Harrison's house. She also is a daughter of 
Mrs. Norton. The editor of the Yankee Delta, 
now the Era, has carried off the books and splen- 
did Magdalen of Mr. Harrison's. Mrs. Dam- 
eron and myself went over the house the day the 
transition was going on, to-wit, the removal of 



276 JOURNAL OF JULIA- LE GRAND 

Frenches staff of officers and the editor of the 
Delta, and the coming in of General Banks and 
his staff, 

LETTEK TO GENEEAL BANKS. 

New Orleans, Jan, 14th, 1863, 
To Majoe Gen'l Banks: 

Sie: — I have understood that articles of value 
have been taken from the residence of my son-in- 
law, Mr. J. P. Harrison, since the military seizure 
of it. 

Some days before you entered into possession 
of it, I took the liberty of addressing you a note 
requesting permission to go through the house to 
ascertain from a personal examination whether, 
and to what extent, the rumors on the subject 
were true. Having received no reply to this note, 
I concluded to call on you in person, and did so 
at the residence of my son-in-law, but you seemed 
to be too much occupied to hear what I had to say 
and left me before I had time to renew my 
request. 

Believing it to be my duty, in the absence of 
my son-in-law, to bring the matter to your atten- 
tion, I now take the liberty of saying, that I have 
reason to believe that articles of value have been 
taken from the house since the seizure, and be- 
fore your occupancy of it, to-wit: 
1st. — ^A handsome painting purchased in Europe, 
and known in the family as *^The Mag- 
dalen." 
2nd. — Lace curtains to parlor windows. 
3rd. — Some large marble vases. 
4th. — Books of value. 



JOURNAL OF JULIA LE GRAND 277 

5tli. — The wines and liquors — principally in bot- 
tles; there was, however, a quarter-cask 
of Madeira, purchased at $12.00 a gallon, 
and from which little had been drawn up 
to the time of seizure. 
I also have reason to believe that one or two 
or more bedsteads and bedding have been taken 
away. 

If these or any other articles be missing, you 
are the only person having power to order their 
return. All I can do is to bring the matter to 
your attention, and desire to do so, and hope I 
have done so respectfully. 

Yours respectfully, 

A. P. Norton. 

P. S. — My residence fronts on the Carrollton 
Railroad — 5th — No. 655, and near the crossing of 
Washington Street. Written for Mrs. Norton, 
Jan. 14th, 1863.— J. E. LeGeand. 

Mr. Harrison ^s brother has had some inter- 
views with General Banks, having been intro- 
duced by a mutual friend (civil war makes strange 
connections). He found Banks a cold, selfish, 
disagreeable fellow, he says. Expected police to 
bring news of Mary and the children to-night. 
Left the lamp burning. This is an awful life. 
We try to persuade Mrs. Norton to be quiet, but 
she is restless and cannot. 

Saturday, 28th [March]. Mr. Randolph here, 
and we all talked about Farragut and the Hart- 
ford for about two hours. He will have it that 



278 JOURNAL OF JULIA LE GRAND 

we have both. Nowadays there seem to be but 
two classes of individuals, those that believe 
everything and those who believe nothing. I have 
fallen into a state of general infidelity. My head 
is dazed with talk and rumors. Mr. Randolph 
has his spy story. A Confederate officer is in, in 
Federal uniform; he says that Farragut never 
passed all the batteries at Port Hudson, but be- 
ing crippled by passing the first, was forced to 
surrender. He was then sent as a prisoner to 
Jackson and thence to Richmond. The Hartford 
still floating the Federal stars and stripes, then 
proceeded on her way to Vicksburg, and as we 
had captured the signals, she lies there to entice 
other Federal vessels from the other fleet to run 
the Vicksburg batteries to come to her assistance ; 
should they do so, they will fall into our hands, as 
did the Queen of the West and others. The officer 
says, too, that the Indianola is safe. The Feder- 
als here say that she sank and rose no more. He 
says, too, that the Confederates are coming soon 
to the defence of this poor city. Mr. Randolph 
believes in this officer, and says he has good rea- 
son to do so. "We told him of our general infi- 
delity which, for our better spirit's sake, he tried 
to combat. 

The Era reports Farragut safe at the mouth 
of the famous canal, waiting for coal barges 
to pass down to him ; it gives a threatening letter 



JOURNAL OF JULIA LE GRAND 279 

of his to the Mayor of Natchez, said threats to be 
carried out should the guerrillas fire on him. (The 
Era distinguishes these irregulars as ^'Gorillas'^. 
The capture of this famous rear-admiral is a great 
deal to us Confederates. He is a brave fellow, 
and his loss would give our enemies quite a blow, 
and the more of that stamp they lose the better. 
It seems a silly thing to me that he should place 
himself in such a dangerous position — parted 
from his fleet and hemmed in by batteries, deadly 
in their effectiveness. If we do not catch him, 
we should. In spite of the bravado and inflation 
of the Era, a very sensible fear of the AdmiraPs 
position appears. Banks is safe here in the city, 
and all his military show towards Port Hudson 
has come to naught. He says that he has done 
all that he wished to do — which was to march in 
great array out of Baton Rouge and then make a 
hasty retreat thereto without striking a blow at 
our strong point. The Federals, I believe, have 
changed their tactics; finding that the *^ gorilla^' 
is strong, they very sublimely sit themselves down 
until he starves to death. It is amusing to hear 
how dreadfully we need everything (from their 
papers). Our people are suffering from the want 
of many accustomed luxuries, but the blessings 
of freedom and peace, I pray God, may so entice 
them from the future that they may continue to 
bear a bold front toward a ruthless and home- 



280 JOUENAL OF JULIA LE GRAND 

desolating foe. Mr. Randolph tells ns that if the 
Confederates do not come in for fifty days, quite 
a large sum of money will be saved to him; but, 
said he, ^ ' I would rather have them in to-morrow, 
and lose it.'^ He comes of the blood of old John 
Randolph; if he had taken the oath, he says, his 
mother and his brothers in the army would have 
disowned him. "When the oath-taking was going 
on last summer, he was so disheartened by the 
sight that he came up from town one day, just to 
be cheered by the sight of those he knew would 
never take it. He brought us one of the ballads 
which flood the city. It represents the reception 
of old John Brown into a place which shall be 
nameless in these decorous pages. He brought 
something better, however — Doctor Palmer's letter 
to Mr. Perkins on the subject of the oath-taking 
in this city. It is a fine thing, this letter, but / 
think, much too severe, and would have come with 
much better grace from one who had remained 
here and suffered the various influences of temp- 
tation which surrounded our poor people here 
under Butler's brutal reign. 

29th [March]. A vote of thanks has been 
passed in our Confederate Congress to all those 
who were true and brave enough to refuse alle- 
giance to the United States. This is well; I feel 
glad and proud and a thrill passes through me, 
knowing that I never, for one instant, faltered; 



JOURNAL OF JULIA LE GRAND 281 

neither did Ginnie. We were both begged, too, 
and considered obstinate and romantic. No out- 
sider can ever realize the state of mind to which 
the people of this city were reduced in those days. 
Our ideas of Butler's character enabled us easily 
to realize in full force any evil which report pro- 
claimed him about to do. Prison, hard labor; 
exile we feared ; evils of all sorts. A cotton press 
was fixed up by the authorities for some purpose. 
Report instantly proclaimed that it was for 
'* Rebel women'' — intended to put them to work at 
it. So also with a large stable which underwent 
some repairs; the women were to be confined 
there and made to wash and cook for Yankee sol- 
diers. We tied up the few relics which we thought 
to conceal; burned many a dear old letter and 
made a general consignment to those who had 
taken the oath, then sat down patiently to wait 
our fate. 

We knew that Butler had vowed to humil- 
iate the women of New Orleans. We knew 
that the police were bribed as well as the servants 
to inform on every member of every household 
who had defied him, and the sufferings of Mrs. 
Phillips and Mrs. Coan in solitary confinement 
on Ship Island enabled us to realize any fate 
which the tyrant might choose for us. Until the 
coming of General Banks we never knew what 
would be done with us or to us. How can an 



282 JOUENAL OF JULI4 LE GRAND 

outsider ever know what a temptation it was to 
us to take that oath? Many women, and men, too, 
took it in tears. Some went with the intention of 
taking it, and found they could not. Some fainted 
and some went crazy. Upon the whole, my opin- 
ion of the earnestness of our people was greatly 
strengthened by the hateful tests which Butler 
applied to their character. Mrs. Norton would 
go to town every day while the oathing was going 
on, and return each day with new reports. **We 
will be alone, girls, I do believe, ' ' she would say ; 
** everybody is taking the oath.'' So we knew 
there would be no escape for us. I had really for- 
gotten that Mrs. Roselius had taken it, although 
she had used so many arguments to make us do so, 
and to-day sent her Doctor Palmer's letter on the 
oath-taking. I was sorry for it afterward. She 
came over after dinner and cried as bitterly as she 
did the day she took it. She does not spare her- 
self. *^I should not have yielded to Mr. Rose- 
lius," she does not scruple to say. She is the 
warmest of Confederates and continues to talk 
like one, and hates the Yankees a thousand times 
worse than before. Mr. Roselius, though he made 
her take the oath, continually throws up the recol- 
lection to her. I despise French husbands ! He 
is a Federal, too ! 

Mrs. Norton has been watching constantly 
for the policeman to whom she entrusted the 



JOURNAL OF JULIA LE GRAND 283 

warrant for Mary. He has discovered that 
Mary is with Jake, Emma and Reuben, her 
husband. Just three weeks ago she ran in to 
her mistress for protection against Reuben, who 
had threatened to kill her. Mrs. Norton went to 
Mary^s to get Jake, and Reuben slammed the door 
in her face — her hand barely escaping. Her hand 
was resting on the side of the jamb. He gave her 
much impudence, too, she says; so did Mary. 
The policeman came to-night late, saying that he 
had just got the three in jail; she has to appear 
early tomorrow in court and swear that Mary 
stole Jake ; she has asked me to go with her. It 
makes me nervous to think of it. We have all ad- 
vised and begged her not to meddle with her ne- 
groes now, knowing that the Federals will protect 
them, no matter what Mrs. Norton can say or do. 
Ginnie saw Reuben in this part of town to-day, 
pointing out this house to negro soldiers, and 
Jane saw white ones stoop and look at the name 
on the gate. 

Monday, 30th [March]. Late last night I wrote 
a note to Captain Brittain for Mrs. Norton, ask- 
ing him to go with us tomorrow to court. I 
scarcely had a wink of sleep, and felt wretchedly 
in more ways than one this morning. Mrs. Nor- 
ton was stirring before day. I might have slept 
then if I could have been quiet. Captain Brittain 
came very early, saying that we need not go down 



284 JOURNAL OF JULIA LE GRAND 

to the court so soon. Mrs. Norton said she had 
been told by the man who gave her the warrant to 
come at 7 o 'clock A. M. The policeman then came 
to tell Mrs. Norton to appear before the Federal 
Court at 10 o'clock, where she is to be confronted 
with Mary. General Shepley had Mary and the 
children turned out of jail almost as soon as 
placed there, although put in by virtue of a search 
warrant. General Shepley is a deceitful, bad 
man, not so bold as Butler, but just as coarse and 
brutal. I feel very sorry for Mrs. Norton; she 
should have let this matter alone, but I will stand 
by her. I have the greatest repugnance to going 
to a court of any kind. She ought not to take 
me — I would not go for a thousand negroes of my 
6wn. I feel nervous, sick and wretched. I wish 
Mr. Randolph were not in Greenville, so that he 
could help us. I hate notoriety — all kinds of it, 
Federal notoriety the worst. This scurrilous 
Era may give a line to me tomorrow. It gave the 
other day a most disgusting article about a 
woman, and indeed, is constantly filled with inso- 
lence to our sex. They hate women here much 
more than men. The Ef^a says, ^'The women of 
New Orleans screw up their thin, pale lips when 
they [the Federals] pass them, turn up their not 
very handsome noses and flash their handsome 
eyes — ^yes, they have handsome eyes, which they 
have inherited from negro ancestors." One of the 



JOURNAL OF JULIA LE GRAND 285 

officers told Supt. McClean, a Confederate pris- 
oner, that he might wear his uniform, but that the 

women of New Orleans were such d d fools, 

that the mere sight of it might create an excite- 
ment. Lieutenant Andrews was very angry the 
other day because so many ladies rushed to see 
the captured Signal Corps and took them little 
comforts. No one goes now unless they can be 
of some real service. / have never been near 
them. 

I have returned all safe, but tired and disgusted. 
This is my first visit to Canal Street for a long 
time. I hate the *^ Squares and Streets'' as much 
as did ever the madman in *^Maud,'' especially 
Canal Street. At all times its show of hard bus- 
iness faces, mingled with the perplexed, wearied 
and sad ones, and its display of glittering fash- 
ionables trailing along, tired and depressed me. 
I used always to say that I returned from a shop- 
ping tour on Canal Street as wearied as if I had 
journeyed to the poles. Now I am sad, despair- 
ing, weary, angry all at once. It makes me fu- 
rious to meet the insolent faces of the Massachu- 
setts mob which has been sent to rule over us — 
despairing to think that they dare and are allowed 
to represent a great Republic ; that they are a part 
of humanity, and that so much of my trust in it 
has been overthrown by them. It has been a cold, 
rainy day — such a one as always lays Mrs. Nor- 



286 JOUENAL OF JULIA LE GRAND 

ton up sick. She would take no advice ; she would 
go; we tried to persuade her that she could do 
nothing to recover Jake. She had no idea, she 
says, that she could recover Mary, but the boy 
she stole. She could not bear to let her servants 
triumph over her, at least without making an ef- 
fort to prevent them. 

Before we left the house Ginnie became so 
uneasy about my being made a witness in 
Peabody's court, that she obtained a promise 
from her that she would not go. So, accord- 
ing to previous agreement with Captain Brit- 
tain, she went to the Custom House, expecting 
to meet him. Owing to some misunderstanding, we 
did not find him. We saw Captain Miller *s carriage 
at the front and were on the pavement when the 
file of soldiers went up the steps. Captain Miller, 
the Mayor, organizes the court each day, and these 
soldiers, a hateful-looking set, attend on it. I 
was dreadfully afraid Mrs. Norton would go up; 
she was anxious, and as disagreeable as it would 
have been, I would have gone with her had I had 
the most distant idea that she would have escaped 
insult, and more than all, Era notoriety — worse 
than prison, worse than battle fire and pestilence, 
worse than Butler, do I dread the Era — the low, 
vulgar tongue of the Federal Government in this 
city! We paced up and down before that deso- 
late-looking Custom House, listening to the drum- 



JOURNAL OF JULIA LE GRAND 287 

beats of the soldiers drilling upon the river bank ; 
also to some few cannon. Dirty-looking soldiers 
guarded the different entrances, and vile-appear- 
ing negroes, in filthy blue clothes, looked from the 
windows. I felt quite as desolate as everything 
looked. How my heart ached for a brother's 
strong arm on which to lean, or for that dear one, 
now lost to me forever. Well, we did not go up 
into the court-room. I escaped that shadow of 
infamy. After traipseing up and down for a full 
hour, and submitting to the gaze for that length 
of time of any infamous creature that chose to 
look at us, we walked up to the City Hall. The 
creature at the door of the Mayor's parlor would 
not let us in; he knew Mrs. Norton; so we stood 
outside with the negroes and other applicants 
until we were ready to drop. After awhile a ne- 
gro vacated a chair and I boldly seized it for Mrs. 
Norton. She was cold and tired and looked so 
woe-begone that I pitied her, though I could not 
understand why she should wish to submit her- 
self to all this degradation. Seeing the police- 
man whom she had engaged to put Mary in jail 
come out of the Mayor's parlor, she went into the 
hall to speak to him, and he told her that Mary 
was then in the Mayor's parlor and that he had 
been telegraphed for. What had taken place he 
could not tell her there, but would come to see 
her and tell. 



288 JOUKNAL OF JULIA LE GRAND 

"We went into the Mayor 's presence and his 
gentlemanship, the Mayor, came up to us in- 
stantly, with a face expressive of insolence and 
anger. I had never seen him before, but from 
Mrs. Norton's account of him, had at least sup- 
posed him to be good-natured. She had been in 
the habit of saying what she pleased to him. 
**Mrs. Norton," said he, *^I have a very serious 
charge against you. " * * What have I done I ' ' said 
she, terrified at his manner. *^ Bribed a police- 
man,'' he returned, with the greatest air of of- 
fended virtue. Mrs. Norton had unfortunately 
given the policeman $10 that very morning. She 
had pressed it upon him from a true feeling of 
gratitude, because he had seemed to take such an 
interest in her affairs, and had taken so much ex- 
tra trouble for her and had left her without telling 
her where she could find him again and without 
asking any payment. She had called him back 
after he had gone out of the gate, and unfortu- 
nately gave him the $10. ^'Bribing a policeman !" 
we both cried in a breath; for the matter had 
never struck us in that light. ^^Yes," returned he, 
* ^bribing a policeman. " ^ ^ I never thought of such 
a thing," said Mrs. Norton, and indeed, she had 
not. ^^Oh, don't deny it," said Captain Miller, 
with the most insufferable appearance; ^^I have 
the very $10 note here now to prove it on you." 



JOURNAL OF JULIA LE GRAND 289 

**Do not bring it/* said Mrs. Norton, ^*I gave it to 
him. ' * ^ * There must be some difference between a 
bribe and a reward, * ' said I, angrily ; * ' this was a 
reward. ' * * ^ He understood from the first he would 
be rewarded,** he returned insolently, *^and there 
has been any quantity of this sort of thing, and 
it must be stopped. Now, see here, Mrs. Norton, ' ' 
he continued, ^*I'll make a bargain with you — if 
you don't meddle with that woman, Mary, of 
yours, I'll drop this matter, but so sure as you do, 
I'll have you before the Provost Court for having 
bribed a policeman." All this was said while he 
shook his hand almost in Mrs. Norton's face. He 
was a young man, and I considered it mean and 
vulgar to speak in this way to an old feeble wo- 
man, especially, too, as he lived in her daughter's 
house free of rent — after having driven her 
daughter out of it and made use of every article 
of provisions or clothing left behind, besides keep- 
ing all the servants and carriages. She had been 
prejudged ; her side of the tale was not even heard 
— all of her servants were in Federal employ, and 
this last woman had not only stolen her little 
house boy, but other things. I was indignant, and 
but for the dread of that disgusting Era, would 
have spoken freely enough. **In the first place," 
he went on, *^you imposed upon the man who gave 
you the search warrant ; if he had known that you 
had not taken the oath, he would not have given 



290 JOURNAL OF JULIA LE GRAND 

it to you.'' '^Is there no justice T' I cried out 
angrily; '* justice is but justice at all times.'' 
''Yes," said he, ''justice is justice, but only for 
some people; justice is for the loyal; search war- 
rants are for the disloyal." Then turning to 
Mrs. Norton, "Do you see this ten dollars? I in- 
tend to give it to your woman, Mary." 

With that we both rose from our seats and Cap- 
tain Miller took a theatrical position in the middle 
of the room. Said Mrs. Norton as she swept by: 
"I'll not take that oath — I'll 7iot swear to a lie." 
"Then," said he with much emphasis and gesture, 
"I swear by my sacred word and honor, you'll 
never have your servant." "There is no honor 
in your courts," said I, stalking out as boldly as 
I could, all the time fearing that he would grab 
me by the arm ; he was quite angry enough to have 
done it. When I got out I wished that I had told 
him that if he considered that a bribe, and if brib- 
ing was such an oifence against the government 
he served, he had no right to drop the matter. 
He had bribed Mrs. Norton that she should not 
disturb Mary. Ginnie says I should have told him 
that I had two brothers serving in the army in 
Texas who would be happy to meet him some day. 
Every one had something to suggest, and of course 
every one could have arranged the interview in 
better style than we did. I was quite satisfied 
with my display of courage, for, from the manner 
in which Captain Chivalry turned toward me, I 



JOURNAL OF JULIA LE GRAND 291 

could judge that I had shown him quite a defiant 
face, as well as having put my few remarks in 
rather a high key. I was indeed angry ; so angry 
that I almost forgot the Era. A little more and 
Mrs. Norton and myself would have graced the 
annals of a police court, and above all, an aboli- 
tion Federal court. The gallant Miller had no 
idea of my nerve. Mrs. Norton has never been 
so crushed and cowed in her life. To my aston- 
ishment she was silent when threatened ; I, whom 
she thinks lacking in spirit, had to speak up in 
her defence. She was white and trembling when 
we came out, and was very unwell all day after- 
ward. I was very sorry for her. She is con- 
vinced now that it is of no use to try and get 
justice from the Federals, and she may be induced 
to keep away from them now. 

We paid Mrs. and Miss Callender a visit. Miss 
Betty looks like death — she is dying with consump- 
tion — her old mother will then be childless. I felt 
sorry to see her, knowing what must soon happen. 
I go out so seldom that when I came in Miss Betty 
clapped her hands and said it would certainly hail. 
I laughed and returned that ^^It was quite cold 
enough. '' When we reached home we had our 
experience to give to every one. We fought our 
battles over again — at least, I did, for Mrs. Nor- 
ton invariably turns to me and says, ^^You tell, 
for I can't; I cannot forget that man's looks." 



VI. 

Maech 31— Apeil 8, 1863. 

Tuesday y 31st [March]. Mary Harrison, Mr. 
Eandolph, Mrs. Waugh and Mary Ogden passed 

nearly the whole morning with us. Mary H 

stayed to dinner, as she missed the car for Green- 
ville. Mr. Randolph was angry when we told him 
the Miller case. Said I should have sent for him. 
I had had an idea of beckoning to him from the 
gallery as he passed in the car, but I thought some- 
thing might happen in that horrid court-room 
which might have brought trouble on him. I 
know he would never have allowed Miller to have 
treated us so without resenting it, and then he 
certainly would have gone to prison. He heard 
my story and took Captain Miller's name down. 
He believes the Confederates are coming. **Why 
do you do thatf said Ginnie. He laughed and 
said, **I shall have a lock of his hair s^ome day,'' 
meaning that he intended to have his scalp. He 
has been so much in wild countries that he often 
talks in this Indian fashion. This was jest; but 
he declares that Miller shall apologize to Mrs. 
Norton on his knees. He says I must never go 
any more to such a place without calling on him. 
Mary Ogden has lately played a favorite caper of 

293 



294 JOURNAL OF JULIA. LE GRAND 

hers, which is representing some character of her 
fancy and deceiving her acquaintances. She has 
a perfect passion for this sort of thing, and does 
it remarkably well. She played rather too seri- 
ous a game a few days ago. Mr. Randolph and 
some other gentlemen were at Judge Ogden's, and 
Mary thought it proper to disguise herself as a 
lady just got in from Natchez. Of course, she was 
brimful of good Confederate items, and her ac- 
counts were so very brilliant that one gentleman, 
quite excited, cried out, ^ ' I knew it — I told you so, 
Judge ; you can 't doubt now. Judge, with this lady 
just in from the outside.'' This, for these anx- 
ious days, when men's minds are drawn out to 
their finest tension and their hearts are longing 
for some precious tidings for a still doubtful 
cause, was rather too serious a game to play. 
Mary has a genius for this sort of acting, and 
can't help it. Mr. Randolph was giving us some 
of this Natchez lady's glad tidings, and we did 
not like the glances which he and Miss Mary ex- 
changed. ^^If you doubt me, ladies," said he, ^'I 
can bring the very lady to you." *^0h, yes, go 

and get her," Mary H and some of the rest of 

us cried. Whereupon Mr. Randolph rose and 
took the Natchez lady by the hand and stood her 
up before the company. Mary Harrison and 
Mary Ogden spoke to each other again in quite 
a friendly manner. They do not visit yet. 



JOURNAL OP JULIA LE GRAND 295 

A boy cried out, ^ * Extra, * ^ and immediately there 
was a sensation. It proved much better than most 
of the cheats we have had lately. Quite a brilliant 
affair at Vicksburg. We drove back two gunboats 
and sunk two; one passed — the Benton — said to 
be so much damaged that the Albatross sailed up 
to her assistance. The Albatross and the Hart- 
ford said to be at the mouth of the canal, though 
Mr. Randolph insists that they both are ours, and 
that they only fly the Federal flag to attract others 
to run the gauntlet. If that were true, we would 
not cripple and sink them so. It must have been 
an awful sight. It happened in daylight, and 
quite a collection of men, women and children be- 
held the sinking vessel and cheered as she went 
down with all her crew. They are our enemies; 
they must be killed or conquered, but, my God, I 
do not think I could have found voice to cheer as 
she sunk, leaving but a black spot behind her ! My 
heart would have stood still and my tongue, too. 
Vicksburg claims the title of ^^The Gibraltar of 
the South. ^ ' Went out with Mary Waugh to take 
a walk; came back and found a room full. Mr. 
Waugh says that Shepley has employed three or 
four hundred more policemen who are to hear 
(accidentally) conversations on the cars and in 
the streets. This sort of thing suits his tastes 
and instincts. He would like to adjust all sorts 
of cases of espionage himself. I hear, too (from 



296 JOUENAL OF JULTA LE GRAND 

Federal sources, it is said), that next week all 
houses are to be searched in which British offi- 
cers have been entertained and the United States 
flag stamped on. I am told that putting foot on 
the United States flag while toasts are being drunk 
to the Confederacy is often part of the ceremony 
on such occasions. A very silly performance, I 
think ; we could never think of Lee or Jackson at 
such a feast. 

Mrs. Norton once proposed to have some of 
them here, but we did not wish it and as she 
would have made us the excuse for more com- 
pany, we refused to give her opportunity. Indeed, 
I would not like to be introduced to strangers and 
foreigners under her chaperonage. She is so very 
abrupt and peculiar. Mrs. Roselius, our most in- 
timate neighbor, was very anxious to entertain 
them, and she has so much taste, tact and good 
breeding that she could have made a pleasant af- 
fair of it; but her husband is such a determined 
Federal that she could not give the matter a 
thought. He, like all the Federals now, hates the 
English. The French and Spanish here are also 
our friends, and I hear a great deal of their vis- 
iting among our pretty girls. A handsome young 
Spaniard from one of the ships made quite a sen- 
sation among them. I have no heart any more; 
no spirit to do anything. Anxiety, sickness and 
grief have sapped the last remnant of merriment 
or interest in me. 




MRS. THEODORE SHUTE 
Of New Orleans 



JOUENAL OF JULIA LE GEAND 297 

Wednesday, April 1st [1863]. Mary Ogden 
here. She has been to see Mrs. Tutt, a lady who 
is just in. Mary Harrison called on her yester- 
day, and we had quite a laugh at her doleful face 
when she returned from the visit. ^^I have called 
to make you all miserable, '^ was her greeting as 
she entered. Then followed a volley of disap- 
pointment. Mrs. Tutt stood sponsor for all. 
Stonewall Jackson is not outside; he is in Vir- 
ginia. The Hartford is not taken; nor the Alba- 
tross, All of our gunboats are injured and un- 
dergoing repairs. We have lost Pontchatoula. 
There are three fine gunboats in Mobile harbor, 
but only intended for its defence; last of all, the 
Confederates are not even thinking of taking this 
place. One by one we recovered from these ex- 
plosions. We began to take Mrs. Tutt's char- 
acter into consideration. Indeed, she is not the 
sort of woman we could even expect to hear good 
tidings. She has no imagination; therefore, 
could tell nothing in its true light, for according 
to a theory popular with romantic people, the 
real truth underlies the common surface, and it 
is only by realizing what we feel and cannot see 

that we reach it. Stonewall J must be there 

in spite of Mrs. Tutt. But in disguise, as we had 
heard. Mrs. Tutt is as truthful as the sunlight, 
but so prosaic — who would expect her to realize 
so stupendous a romance as that, and as for the 
expected attack here — who would, for a moment, 



298 JOURNAL OF JULIA LE GEAND 

suppose that our Generals would be so silly as to 
tell their plans to Mrs. Tutt! So we went on 
laughing very much and sighing a great deal au- 
dibly now and then. We had heard that Mrs. 
Tutt had taken a solemn oath to the Confederates 
not to reveal one single thing which she had seen 
or heard. This meant a great deal, we thought; 
if she could honestly reveal nothing, what might 
we not believe? This is the matter which Mary 
Ogden went to settle. One member of her family 
had said she had taken that very solemn oath; 
another said that it was only the oath to the Con- 
federacy — taken Yankee fashion. Mrs. Wilkin- 
son says that such an oath has never been admin- 
istered in the Confederacy; so the matter must 
stand as we heard at first. They did not appeal 
directly to Mrs. Tutt, for she is in deep grief on 
account of her recently lost husband. 

However, one by one our hopes are dying out. 
Our imprisonment is terrible. It does not seem to 
have the same effect on others as on Ginnie and 
me. We are so uncongenially situated. After Mary 
Ogden had gone home, Lizzie and Jule, who had 
been passing the day in town, came in. The 
Mitchell girls were with them — all bright, rosy and 
cheerful. The last two, however, said they were 
very low-spirited at home now. ^^Pa has gone to 
his plantation and cannot get back. ' ^ They ran on 
cheerfully enough about their young matters, 



JOURNAL OF JULIA LE GRAND 299 

though. One of them raised her Beauregard (a 
small cape worn by Confederate women), and 
showed a huge button which she avowed to have 
stolen from ^ ^Somebody's'' coat. Ginnie called it 
a Yankee button, but she made great haste to 
show her Pelican. They know all the Spanish 
officers, and like them '^so much." We saw them 
to the cars and the Ogdens got in. Mrs. Saunders 
and Mr. R. 's little Eva were within. They called 
to us to come soon to Greenville. I wish we 
could go and stay awhile ; they all come to see us 
so often and beg so earnestly for our return visits. 

I have no fancy for Mr. S . The Yankee Era 

to-day acknowledeged the loss of another gunboat, 
the Diana, in the Teche. We are told, too, that 
Sibley has beaten the Yankees well in the Teche 
country. 

Weitzel is now in the city. The Yankees, 
too, have admitted that our men fought splen- 
didly, and after capturing a number of them 
treated them in the kindest and most gallant man- 
ner. I do love this. Mrs. Roselius and ourselves 
were talking about this matter to-day. Mrs. 
Roselius repeated what she had heard from 
her husband. Weitzel has said that the men 
of Louisiana are as brave as any the world 
contains — they fought them splendidly, and after- 
wards treated their captives nobly, but it was 
astonishing to him that the women were so 



300 JOURNAL OF JULIA Lgl GRAND 

very bitter, so uncompromising, that they could 
not give an enemy a civil word. I said I was 
so sorry to hear this, and mentioned what Mr. 
Harrison, who has been a prisoner for months 
in the Custom House, had seen there of the rude- 
ness of our women who went to see after the 
prisoners. Mrs. Norton burst out in her abrupt 
way, ^ ^ Dear knows, they treat us bad enough ; for 
my part, I don't care what they say to them, the 
wretches.'' I remarked that it was at least for 
a woman's own sake that she avoid notoriety. 
Any notion that I may have formed of chivalry, 
true patriotism and courtesy I did not touch upon. 
Many women here insult the Federal soldiers, 
who will not sacrifice their love of finery for the 
sake of their anxious fathers and brothers. I 
would expect little true patriotism from such. 
Went to see Mrs. Gilmour and her daughter. 

Mrs. G is a sweet, sweet old lady. She, too, is 

going to Texas on a visit to a married son there. 
She hopes that we may meet, and so do I. She 
knows a lady just in from Port Hudson. We have 
not captured the Hartford or Farragut, but he is 
yet between our batteries. The Indianola is un- 
der repairs at Alexandria, and is not destroyed. 
The Yankees are deserting Baton Rouge, after all 
their military display there. They are fortifying 
Donaldsonville, they say, because they wish to cut 
us off from supplies, but we say because they could 



JOURNAL OF JULIA LE GRAND 301 

not remain where they were; their men were de- 
serting, a dozen, sometimes fifteen, a day, and 
refused to fight when Banks marched out with 
them. Reports of our having four vessels in the 
Gulf. I fear our hopes are vain, and we are not 
to be delivered yet. 

Saturday, April 4th [1863]. Judge and Mrs. 
Montgomery were here this morning, bringing 
reports of a bloody engagement in Yazoo. The 
enemy have been cut off from return after passing 
up some of the small rivers of that region in their 
attempts to reach the rear of Vicksburg. Seven- 
teen transports, with men and supplies, have been 
captured by our people. This news is certainly 
true, the Judge says, and he is not easily deceived 
by evidence, and never lets his hopes run away 
with his judgment. 

April 7th. I have been quite sick, and am still 
too weak to write and sew much ; so depressed in 
spirits that I find no diversion in anything. 
Within the last week the great Yazoo expedition 
has been abandoned ; so also has the Port Hudson 
one. What Banks has done so far can not aid 
his infamous Government much. A few days ago 
the paroled prisoners in town received a notice 
to appear before a certain person at a given hour, 
or be fetched by the military. They obeyed the 
order, not knowing what was to become of them, 
whereupon they were locked up in the Custom 



302 JOURNAL OF JUIJA LE GRAND 

House and sent off to be exchanged secretly , so 
that no crowd could collect and see them off. They 
left at night, and spite of secret movements, some 
knew of them and would at least appear upon the 
levee, though they dared make no demonstration 
in favor of the Confederate cause. One gentle- 
man waved his hat to the departing boat and was 
immediately arrested. He proved to be a Scotch- 
man, and nothing could be done to him. Ladies 
are constantly arrested for the color of the roses 
they wear on their bosoms and bonnets. Alas! 
for handkerchiefs bearing the Confederate flag! 
One of the paroled prisoners about to depart was 
presented with two roses by a lady — one red and 
the other white ; he placed them in his button-hole, 
and the defiant exhibition caused his arrest and 
return. He was Lieutenant Musselman, and he 
was much disappointed at not being able to go 
with his companions beyond the lines. A flag of 
truce boat arrived here, but none of our people 
were allowed to put foot on the shore or to receive 
their friends on the boat. Mrs. Shute, who has 
been separated from her son for two years, went 
down to the levee to try to get a glimpse of him. 
She was denied the privilege of even standing on 
the shore and even getting a f ar-oif glance at him. 
She went to each authority in town, begging the 
privilege of seeing him but for a moment or two on 
board the boat, but was refused. 



JOURNAL OF JULIA LE GRAND 303 

There has never been such great and small 
tyrannies practised in the world before, I 
verily believe, as by those who now con- 
duct the affairs of this city. A lady can 
not give a party in her own home without she re- 
ceives a permit from some such creature as Cap- 
tain Miller, or has her company broken in upon 
by the police. Such things make my blood boil, 
** Confederate blood,** the Era would say. Mrs. 
"Wells was here yesterday; just received a letter 
from her daughter whom she sent outside the 
lines months ago. The officers tell her, Mattie 
Wells says, that everything is going on splendidly 
for us, and that our troubles will be over in May. 
Sarah Wells also writes that they all look cheer- 
ful, and are far from starvation. Matty Wells 
has been the victim of a physician's blunder — he 
gave her poison, fortunately not in sufficient quan- 
tities to cause death, but she was perfectly blind 
for days. The mother is almost crazed about her 
two girls. She is here alone, her husband's prop- 
erty having been seized here. He ran the block- 
ade and went to Vera Cruz. Her relations at the 
North are very rich. She says she would go to 
them but fears her girls would not be happy there. 
They were born in the South, though they have 
until now passed much time in the North, and 
loved it. The horrors of this civil strife are too 
great to realize. I saw a day or two ago two sad- 



304 JOURNAL OF JULIA LE GRAND 

looking women on the street. *^This is fulfilling 
the Scriptures,'' said one; ^Hhe sons are fighting 
against the fathers, and the fathers against the 
sons.'' 

Mrs. Wilkinson has not yet gone out, hav- 
ing been put off from day to day by these miser- 
able wretches here. Those who have taken the 
oath and are favorable to the Federal cause, can 
go out. The officers will positively deny that 
there is a schooner or any other opportunity for 
removal, when they know just as positively that 
people of their own stamp, who will swear to 
anything, are going often. The Wilkinsons have 
frequently summoned their friends for last good- 
byes, having been promised immediate transit, 
but here they are still. The Wilkinson girls hur- 
ried Mary Ogden and Betty Neely in from Green- 
ville day before yesterday, having been promised 
by General Sherman that they should go out the 
next day ; the same gentleman told Mrs. Wells the 
very same day that they would not get off for weeks. 
They are sitting with their trunks packed and 
their daily interests are suspended, having been 
told that they might receive but an hour's notice 
to depart. They treat Mrs. Wilkinson this way 
because her sons are in the army, her husband 
killed at Manassas, and because she will not take 
the oath. Mary Ogden was here yesterday, look- 
ing very badly and complaining. Lizzie and Jule 



JOURNAL OF JULIA LE GRAND 305 

look like roses; so also does Betty Neely. Mrs. 
Dameron, too, looks very healthy and very pretty. 
She is plump and clean-looking. She has been 
parted from the kindest and best of husbands for 
a whole year now. What a blessed thing good 
nerves are; 'tis a good thing, too, to lack that 
realizing sense of surrounding evils which eats out 
the very life principle when it once takes posses- 
sion. It kills Ginnie and myself; we dwell on our 
misfortunes and those of others until the whole 
world seems Hope's sepiilcher. 

Doctor Cartwright once said to Ginnie, ^^Oh, 
what a joyous little creature you were in- 
tended to be by Nature — how happy you might 
have been.'' The old Doctor saw that no 
disease but that of the mind preyed upon 
her. He tried once to learn of me what it 
was that made her so unhappy, but finding that I 
could not confide, he desisted and wound up by 
telling me that we must go about more and be 
cheerful. We must marry, he said ; but learning 
that it was quite impossible for us to love anyone, 
he said that it was not necessary for a woman to 
love before marriage, so that a man did. ^^ Every 
woman,'' said he, **will love the man who is kind 
to her." Heavens, what a theory! The Doctor 
is a theorist, I know, but I am glad that he has 
not the power to practice upon his patients after 
this style. He was horrified when I told him that 



306 JOURNAL OF JULIA LE GRAND 

if I married a person without love that I should 

hate Mm afterward and myself, too. Dr. C 

realizes more fully than any man I ever knew the 
word '^philosopher/' but no man knows how to 
philosophize about a woman — there are pages in 
her heart-history which the wisest of them can 
never read. 

Many friends have been to see us. Ginnie looks 
so tired and ill; she is constantly telling me that 
I look so; indeed, our great anxiety about each 
other does us much harm. To meet her sad, pale 
face in the mornings is sometimes as much as I 
can bear. We two have grown to love each other 
very tenderly. People laugh and say that they 
think of us as one person. Our most angry words 
with one another are in the other's behalf. In- 
deed, I am often worried over Ginnie when she 
refuses to eat some little delicacy, which these 
hard times have made scarce, because I won 't take 
it, too. It is very common for us to say to each 
other, **I will not touch one mouthful unless you 
do, too." This seems a silly way to act, and sil- 
lier to record, but even in small matters we think 
the most of the other's comfort than our own; to 
save the other little labors more than repays for 
taking them to ourselves. I know that if I were to 
die Ginnie could not be comforted, and should I 
lose her, I am finished forever. Were there no 
death or suffering in the world such love would be 



JOURNAL OF JULIA LE GRAND 307 

a source of infinite sweetness, but as it is, there is 
fear in every heart-throb. 

The time passes; we hear no word from those 
that are near and dear. If letters have been sent, 
they have failed to reach us in these sad times. 
My sisters, my poor maimed brother, can it be that 
we are never, never to meet any more 1 It seems 
so. We may die in this Yankee-beset town and 
have no kindred to close our eyes! I sometimes 
wonder if they are not very anxious about us ; but 
they know that we have friends here, and may not 
remember us as we remember them. Indeed, I 
would not wish them to know how we suffer, 
knowing that they can not reach us with help. 
Whenever I have been able to send off a few lines 
to them, I have said that we are well and safe, 
God forgive the untruth, but I hope some of my 
words have reached them. We are as well as 
sleepless nights and headaches from anxiety can 
leave us, and we have some friends, and many who 
say they are friends — one whom I would trust as 
a brother and one to whom I would not fear to 
open my heart as to a sister. I shall never forget 
Mr. Randolph and Mrs. Waugh. Simple-hearted, 
honest, true and kind, wiser and more spirited 
than those who pretend to more. 

April 8th [1863]. Mrs. Waugh came over this 
morning to see if we would go to Greenville with 
her. I did not feel well, but made the attempt to 



308 JOURNAL OF JULIA LE GRAND 

dress myself; I was still in doubt when she left 
us to dress. In attempting to put on my clothes 
I was so weak that I felt f ainty, and so determined 
to delay. I wrote her a note, putting off till some 
other time. I had not finished it when in rushed 
Mary Harrison, almost wild with joy. In these 
sad times a little joy will sometimes leaven the 
whole lump. Mary has just received two letters 
from her aut Ellen, whose husband is a colonel 
in our army. She is at Franklin, Louisiana, a few 
hours' ride on the car from this place. She is 
there with Sibley's army, and that army is mostly 
composed of ^ ^ Texans. ' ' We were soon almost as 
excited as she — a certain wild hope of getting out 
there and under the protection of some of our 
people; get to Texas, or at least, hear of our sis- 
ters and brothers. A Captain Harley, mentioned 
in the late taking of Galveston, is a friend of Mrs. 
Riley's (Mary's aunt). He is also a friend of 
Mr. Randolph's, and is the very redoubtable hero 
to whose care he was about to commend us when 
he was stationed at Galveston before its first fall, 
and when we thought we had some chance of 
reaching it. This gentleman (knight, nowadays) 
his two friends proclaim to be the ugliest of the 
ugly, but he is accomplished, wise, kind and brave, 
and, like all brave men, ready to serve a woman 
(I don't say *^lady"). He is at Franklin, and 
what is more than probable, Dick and James Pye, 



JOUENAL OP JULIA LE GRAND 309 

who were also in Galveston's defence service, are 
there. They, my brother-in-law 's brothers, would 
be friends indeed ; many and many an unthinking, 
joyous day have we spent together in the old times 
past. Never then did they or we think of the 
brass buttons, the stripes, the shoulder-straps and 
the grey cloth which now represents a new idea 
(Greybacks, these Federals call our soldiers), 
when, in the old time, before our two families 
moved South, we sat on the banks of the blue 
Potomac, watching the white sails and listening 
to the ^'Hail, Columbia,'' of the steamers; little 
did we think that the dear river would one day 
shut out old Maryland from our country. They 
are Texans now, wearing her colors, bearing her 
lone star banner, and we have a foothold still in 
this desolated Louisiana; and Maryland, our 
mother, is torn and oppressed by Federal soldiers, 
and she, for her undecided course, the scorn, the 
pity of the world. Oh, is it not best to die early ? 
I was almost forgetting Mary Harrison and her 
letters. Well, her aunt wants her, and indeed, the 
whole family, to come to her immediately; says 
she is splendidly situated with the army and can 
make them comfortable. The girls are crazy to 
go out, but all depends on their father and these 
Federals. Ginnie said to Mary, ^^Yes, you can 
hear from your friends, but we hear nothing." 
With one of her impulses, Mary leaped from her 



310 JOURNAL OF JULIA LE GRAND 

chair, and throwing her arms around Ginnie, kissed 
her, saying, ^'Yes, I thought of you as soon as I 
got my letter; I ought to be ashamed to tell you 
of if She then fell to begging us to go out with 
them if they went, promising us a warm welcome 
at her aunt's and a splendid time until we could 
get farther on our journey. I have met Mrs. 
Riley, and like her very much. She has seen 
much of the world, and yet preserves her kindli- 
ness ; she is both cultivated and agreeable. I have 
almost a hope of getting out. Oh, what a joy it 
would be to be under the roof of kindred once 
more! Sister, the children, Claude and brother 
[Washington LeGrand] ; I never knew how much 
I loved them until now. Mary 's excited talk gave 
her a headache, and we made her a cup of tea, and 
We sat and had a long chat. But for Mrs. Nor- 
ton's making us nervous, saying every now and 
then, * ^ Can 't listen to anything I have to say, ' ' we 
could have had a pleasant time. Presently Mr. 
Randolph came in, and he and Mary having met 
here so often, Ginnie met him in the parlor with, 
'*Yes, Miss Harrison is here; walk in; she has 
been here for some time. ' ' Whereupon he blushed 
mightily. Mary made Ginnie introduce her to him 
as he entered, which made him blush again. Mrs. 
Dameron was here, too, and the talk was too mixed 
up for Mrs. Norton to take it all in, and while Mr. 
Randolph was telling her something, she spoke 



JOURNAL OF JULIA LE GRAND 311 

sharply to Ginnie, who was listening to Mary, to 
* ^ Stop and listen to somebody. ' ^ ^ ^ I am listening 
to somebody, '' returned Ginnie, bowing to Mary. 
This was high satire, and when I remarked that 
^^Miss Harrison was annihilated, ' ' and Mary said 
she would never have the boldness to speak again, 
and Mr. Randolph had stopped in the middle of 
his speech and blushed, she became confused, and 
in some sort made apology. ^^Well,'^ she said, 
*^when anybody is telling anything interesting, I 
want every one to hush and hear it." Mr. Ran- 
dolph was trying to convince her that ive had Far- 
ragut, and as we had heard all his arguments be- 
fore, and as we were sitting 

[Here the Jouenal, as preserved, abruptly ends.] 



NOTES 



Page 37, "S. C.":— "Sallie" Chilton, daughter of John Marshall 
and Sarah [Norton] Chilton. She married Major John Devereaux, 
C.S.A., and died early, leaving one son, Chilton Devereaux. Miss 
Chilton was one of the noted belles and beauties of the sixties, 

P. 37, "Lizzie Ogden," "Billy" Ogden:— The "Ogden girls," as 
they are called in the Journal, Mary, Julia and Eliza, were 
daughters of Judge A. N. Ogden. Mary and Julia died several 
years ago. Miss Eliza Ogden is living with her nephew, the 
Rev. Dunbar H. Ogden, Atlanta, Georgia, son of William F. 
Ogden, the "Billy" Ogden of the Journal. Miss Eliza Ogden 
writes, June 2, 1910: "The Misses LeGrand were dear friends 
of mine. They were exceptionally fine women, cultured, refined 
and aristocratic. We were near neighbors in Greenville and 
spent many delightful moments together." 

Pp. 47 and 57, "Doctor Cartwright": — A personal friend of 
President Davis, a resident of Natchez, Mississippi, before he 
removed to New Orleans. Mrs. Alice Gordon Walworth, of 
Natchez, is his granddaughter. 

P. 62, "The Harrison Family," "Mary Harrison": — Mr. James 
O. Harrison, a distinguished lawyer of Lexington, Kentucky, 
was a brother of the gentleman who married Miss Norton. Mr. 
Harrison and his family were refugees from Kentucky during 
the war, and after they left New Orleans came to Richmond, the 
Confederate Capital, where they had many friends who were 
homeless like themselves. Among these friends were Miss Emily 
V. Mason and her sister, Mrs. Catharine A. Rowland. A letter 
from Miss Mary Harrison to Miss Mason, dated from Lexington, 
Ky., a few years ago, recalls her visits to these ladies at Winder 
Hospital where they were nurses, or "Matrons," the term then 
in use for the positions they held: 

Camp Winder is clearly before me. I can see Cousin Kate and 
hear her cheerful greetings to the sick soldier boys. And I 

313 



314 JOURNAL OF JULM LE GRAND 



recall the happy evenings I spent with you, happy even among 
such surroundings. I can hear your reproaches in tragic tones 
because I said at dinner one day I could not eat cold carrots. 
"What," you exclaimed, "you refuse to eat what our soldiers 
would be glad to have enough of! You make me hopeless! How 
can the Confederacy succeed if this is the spirit of her women!" 
I felt awfully guilty, and when the end came I found myself 
hoping my faltering before the detested carrots had had nothing 
to do with the failure of our cause. 

Mr. James 0. Harrison was a prisoner in New Orleans for 
many months, confined in the Custom House, as is related in the 
Journal. 

P. 73, 'TVir. Wilkinson," "Katie" Wilkinson; p. 76, "Miss 
Marcella Wilkinson": — Mr. Biddle Wilkinson was the son of 
General James Wilkinson, of the Revolution, and his wife, Anne 
Biddle. He married Catharine Andrews, of Williamsburg, Vir- 
ginia, and they had Dr. Biddle Wilkinson, father of Theodore 
Wilkinson, Senator from Louisiana, and Ernest Wilkinson, lawyer 
in Washington, D. C. (1910) ; Robert Andrews Wilkinson, 
father of Mrs. Toby, of New Orleans; a daughter who married 
Col. Clement Penrose, and two other daughters, Marcella and 
Julia Wilkinson. The latter married Dr. Frederic Egan and 
was a widow at the time of her death in 1909. The Wilkinsons 
had owTied a beautiful sugar plantation at "Point Celeste," Parish 
of Plaquemines, Louisiana, and here they were living in 1834, 
1835 and 1848, as mentioned in contemporary letters of the 
Mason family, Catharine Andrews having been a girl friend of 
Mrs. John Thomson Mason, of Williamsburg, mother of Miss 
Emily V. Mason. The latter visited Point Celeste in 1835 and 
1848, and has left on record charming descriptions of Louisiana 
plantation life as seen in this interesting family. 

P. 78, "Miss Emanuel's wedding": — This lady, Mrs. Mary E. 
Wheeler, now a widow, is living (1909) at Roslyn, near Balti- 
more. The following are extracts from her letters to Mrs. M. L. 
Croxall : 

Many thanks for your kindness in sending me the Journal, 
which I have read with great interest; it has thrilled me, coming 
like a deep-toned echo from that dark, and, to me, misty haze, 
of the long ago. Name after name recalls the friends of a 



JOURNAL OF JULIA LE GRAND 315 



period, well nigh faded from memory, a period so painful in 
retrospect. Of the names you mention, one especially sends a 
thrill through me, Sarah Chilton, my most beloved schoolmate, 
friend of my girlhood and young married life. Her father, John 
M. Chilton, a lawyer of great repute, was the law partner of 
S. S. Prentis, the famous orator and lawyer. He and my father 
were like brothers. General Chilton, of Lee's staff [brother of 
John M. Chilton] was a dear friend of my father's also. [General 
R. H, Chilton married Laura Mason, sister of Miss Emily V. 
Mason, and Mrs. C. A. Rowland.] As someone aptly writes, 
"I'd like to throttle Memory and bury her in a deep hole." 
Such horrors are here recalled, that I live again through those 
days of fear and torture; and again is stirred within me the 
animosity which almost drove people to madness. Yet through 
it all, in her writing of and depicting the time and scenes in 
which she was living, Miss LeGrand preserves her dignity, Chris- 
tian patience, charity and endurance — writes with rare force 
and culture, sorrows most for the human heart that mocks a 
fellow's woe, and tramples rights, to humiliate those already 
down-trodden and forlorn, — while she moralizes and discusses 
hard problems with the wisdom of a sage. To the citizens of 
New Orleans who bore their trials so nobly, and whom neither 
threat nor bribery could move from their loyalty to their State, 
city and country, this Journal is as noble a monument as could 
be raised. 

P. 148, "Davis was a partisan": — ^Miss LeGrand doubtless came 
later to a realization of the unselfish character and all-embracing 
patriotism of the Confederate President. 

P. 162, "Capt. Harry Flash":— Author of three of the finest 
dirges the Southern cause produced — "Zollicoffer, killed, battle 
of Somerset, Ky., January 19th, 1862;" "Polk," and "Stonewall 
Jackson" (see "Southern Poems of fhe War," by Emily V. 
Mason, Baltimore, Md., Fifth Edition, 1885). 

P. 176, "The Battle of the Handkerchiefs":— This poem ap- 
peared in Southern newspapers of the period under the heading: 
"The Greatest Victory of the War, La Bataille des Mouchoirs, 
Fought Friday, February 20, 1863, By Eugenie." The author- 
ship, it is believed, has never been revealed. 

P. 184, "Dreux": — Capt. Charles D. Dreux commanded the 
Orleans Cadets at the beginning of the war. He was killed at 
Young's Mills, Virginia, July 5, 1861. His untimely death 



316 JOURNAL OF JULIA LE GRAND 

inspired two lyrics to his memory to be found in "The Southern 
Poems of the War," one by Mrs. Marie B. Williams, and the 
other by James R. Randall, who calls Dreux The rose and mirror 
of the hold Creole. 

P. 202, "Portland Manor": — Up to the time this Journal 
was written, the Croxalls had owned in Maryland at different 
periods from 1729, "Brother's Generosity," left to Joanna Carroll 
Croxall by the will of her brother, James Carroll, in Prince 
George County, "The Range," in the same county; "Hempfield," 
"Croxall's Elbow Room," and "Garrison" in Baltimore County; 
"Betsy's Chance," "Woodhaim," and "Poplar Island" in Talbot 
County; and "Portland Manor" in Anne Arundel County, a large 
tract where now is located the Pimlico Race Course, besides ten 
acres of ground in the heart of Baltimore. The estates men- 
tioned above were all large, comprising hundreds of acres. A. B. C. 
P. 221, "The separation of States and the bloodshedding" : — 
Our Confederate strength will be too great to tempt aggres- 
sion, and never was there a people whose interests and principles 
committed them so fully to a peaceful policy as those of the 
Confederate States. By the character of their productions they 
are too deeply interested in foreign commerce wantonly to dis- 
turb it. War of conquest they cannot wage because the Consti- 
tution of their Confederacy admits of no coerced association. 
Civil war there cannot be between States held together by their 
volition only. Inaugural Address of President Davis, Richmond, 
February 22d, 1862. 

P. 280, "Dr. Palmer's letter": — Dr. Benjamin M. Palmer, of 
Charleston, South Carolina, Rector of the First Presbyterian 
Church at New Orleans for many years, and but lately (1910) 
dead. He was a distinguished divine, a man of much intellectual 
force, and universally beloved. 

P. 281, "Butler had vowed to humiliate the women of New 
Orleans": — His infamous Order No. 28, and other acts, such as 
the execution of William B. Mumford, led President Davis to 
issue a proclamation declaring Butler to be an outlaw and a 
felon, and if captured he should be instantly hanged. Butler had 
taken possession of New Orleans May 1, 1862. He was super- 
seded by General Banks, who assumed command of the city 
December 17, 1862. A. B. C. 



JOURNAL OF JULIA LE GRAND 317 



THE BATTLE OF NEW ORLEANS. 

The battle of New Orleans was as great a defeat for the 
Confederates as the battle of Hampton Roads was for the Fed- 
erals. But when we come to consider the vast inequality between 
the two fleets, a more desperate engagement was not fought 
during the war, and the bravery displayed by the Confederate 
naval officers and men is without parallel in naval history. That 
the reader may have an insight into the odds that the Confed- 
erates had to meet, we give the names and number of guns as 
taken from Admiral Farragut's report to the Secretary of the 
United States Navy: 

The United States fleet consisted of ship Hartford, 26; Brook- 
lyn, 25; Richmond, 22; Pensacola, 25; Portsmouth, 22; Missis- 
sippi, 12; Oneida, 10; Varuna, 10; Katadid, 7; Kineo, 4; 
Wissahickon, 4; Pinola, 4; Cayuga, 6; Sciota, 3; Iroquois, 8; 
Kennebec, 4; Itasca, 4; Winona, 4; total, 18 ships and 198 
guns. This was the fleet that ascended the river, besides twenty- 
one schooners, under Porter, mortar boats, which had incessantly 
bombarded and almost wrecked the forts before Farragut at- 
tempted to turn by them at night. 

The Confederate fleet consisted of the Louisiana, a half-finished 
iron-clad, without steam power to stem the Mississippi current, 
eight guns; McRae, river steamer, eight guns; Manassas, a 
small tin-plated, so to speak, ram, too small to do much ram- 
ming, one gun; Jackson, small river steamer, two guns; Launch 
No. 3, three guns, and Launch No. 6, one gun; Governor Moore, 
river steamer, two guns; General Quitman, river steamer, two 
guns; Anglo-Norman, Defiance, Stonewall Jackson, General 
Lovell, Breckinridge and Warrior, small river steamers, one 
gun each; Resolute, river steamer, two guns. Total gunboats, 
15; total guns, 33. 

A few small steamers were used on the Confederate side to 
tow fire rafts. The whole of the Confederate fleet was, with 
perhaps one or two exceptions, destroyed either by the enemy 
or by the Confederates to prevent them falling into the hands 
of the enemy. On the 18th day of April, 1862, the mortar 
schooners got into a position greatly protected from the guns 



' 



318 JOURNAL OF JULIA LE GRAND 

of the forts, Jackson and St. Philip, and opened fire, with some 
firing from the fleet, as Farragut says, only to divert attention 
from the mortar boats. This continued without intermission 
until, as General Lovell estimates, over seventy-five thousand 
shells were thrown, one-third of which fell inside the fort 
(Jackson). Now, imder this terrific fire, Admiral Farragut put 
his fleet in motion at 1:55 on the morning of April 24, 1862, and 
in two lines steamed up the river, and, as he says, the smoke 
was so dense that ships could not be discerned at a very short 
distance, and he was guided entirely by the flash of guns to 
enable him to locate the forts. 

In this state of affairs it was hard to tell friend from foe, and 
several Confederate ships received shot from the forts. The 
chain raft had been washed away by the tremendous freshet then 
in the river. The fire rafts sent down to destroy the enemy's 
ships had proved failures, and the fighting was every ship for 
itself on the Confederate side, as no signals could be seen. Per- 
haps no naval battle of the world has ever been fought under 
such circumstances and against such odds. But no man flinched. — 
Richmond Times-Dispatch, 1908, from "The Confederate Navy" 
ly W. F. Clayton, 



NOV 8 1911 



"****%.: 




D00m4517H2^ 




